M 


'.»■■■"•'■! 


XI B HAHY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of    ILLI  NOIS 

917.3 
B46uj 
v.  i 


IUIWHS  HISTORICAL  SURVEY 


THE    WABASH. 


THE    WABASH: 

OR 

ADVENTURES 

OF    AN 

ENGLISH    GENTLEMAN'S    FAMILY 

It)    THE 

INTERIOR    OF    AMERICA. 


-The  forest  glades, 

The  spreading  prairie,  woo'd  us  on. 

nation,  'neath  the  shades 
Of  timber'd  wildernesses,  ran  ; 
And  lighted  up  the  unknown  land 

With  hope  and  love  and  life  reuew'd  : 
For  Thou  wast  there  ;  and,  hand  in  hand, 
Bravely  we  met  the  forest  rude. 


J.  RICHARD    BESTE,  Esq. 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 

LONDON: 

HURST   AND    BLACKETT,   PUBLISHERS, 
SUCCESSORS    TO   HENRY    COLBURN, 

13,  GREAT    MARLBOROUGH    STREET. 

1855. 


LONDON: 
T.    RrCHARDS,  37  QRKAT    QUEEN    STREET. 


34-k 


PREFACE. 


-  The  following  pages  contain  an  account  of  the  aci- 
ni ventures  of  a  family,  in  the  rank  of  English  country 
^gentry,  during  their   travels   into  what  Europeans 
^  consider  the  Backwoods  or  the  Far  West  of  North 
,  America.    lam  aware  that  the  lapse  of  thirty  or  forty 
months  since  they  took  place,  Mrould  make  a  descrip- 
'  tion  of  the  cities  of  the  United  States  as  much  out  of 
date  as  would  the  same  number  of  years  intervening 

after  a  visit  to  the  towns  of  the  Old  World  ;  but  I 

t    . 
did  not  linger  in  the  long-settled  States  of  America 

,  nor  in  their  capitals. 
^      Although  the  villages  and  the  towns  and  the  coun- 
tries which  I  most  visited,  may  be  now  more  filled 
£  up  and  "  fenced  in",  yet  will  my  description  of  them 
and  of  their  inhabitants  apply  to  localities,  similarly 
placed  in  regard  to  the  onward  march  of  civilisation 
j  across  that  mighty  continent,  so  long  as  a  forest  or 

*n 


11 

a  prairie  shall  remain  uncultivated  between  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific — so  long  as  the  American 
people  shall  be  an  amalgamation  of  individuals  trans- 
planted and,  more  or  less  firmly,  rooted  by  citizen- 
ship in  the  rich  soil  which  it  is  given  to  them  to  fill 
and  to  subdue. 

Travelling,  as  we  did,  with  a  large  family  of  chil- 
dren, we  were,  necessarily,  brought  into  contact 
with  much  of  which  a  single  male  traveller  hears 
and  sees  nothing : — I  had  to  make  thoughtful  pro- 
vision for  our  slow  progress  in  the  interior,  where 
he  would  have  sped  fearlessly  onward  in  his  stage- 
coach or  steamer.  This  has  enabled  me  to  describe 
much  that  he  never  sees.  His  greater  independence 
of  motion  may,  indeed,  have  oftener  thrown  him 
into  companionship  with  those  individual  oddities 
and  entertaining  scamps  whom  we  are,  sometimes, 
told  to  look  upon  as  types  of  the  whole  American 
people ;  but  the  incidents  of  family  travel  have 
afforded  interests  more  deep,  and,  probably,  more 
genuine. 

In  these  volumes,  will  be  found  many  passages 
purporting  to  be  extracted  from  the  written  records 


Ill 

of  my  children.  I  would  mention  that  these  records 
were  not  compiled  by  them  with  any  view  to  pub- 
lication, nor,  even,  from  any  love  of  writing  about 
themselves  ;  but  because,  as  a  task  and  to  exercise 
the  composition  and  the  handwriting  of  the  younger 
of  them,  I  desired  each  one  to  write,  and  to  bring 
me  every  day,  some  account  of  their  travels  in 
America.  When  these  descriptions  appeared  to  me 
graphic  or  entertaining  ;  when  they  told  the  sad 
scenes  which  I  myself  was  incapacitated  from  wit- 
nessing ;  when,  even,  they  only  showed  the  impres- 
sions which  a  new  country  and  new  scenes  produced 
upon  new  minds  —  I  did  not  scruple  to  embody 
them  :  because  I  felt  that  I  could  so  best  fulfil  the 
object  I  had  in  view,  that  I  could  so  best  familiarise 
the  reader  with  America  and  the  American  people. 

My  endeavour  has  been  to  represent,  in  these 
pages,  what  we  saw  and  felt :  consequently,  they 
must  contain  much  that  is  personal ;  much  that  is 
light,  frivolous,  anccdotical ;  much,  also,  that  is  dark 
and  sorrowing ;  for  such  was  the  course  of  our 
travels.  Like  the  Swiss  family  Robinson  Crusoes, 
we   stand    before    the   reader—  mysteriously   driven 


IV 

forth  to  wander  and  to  live,  for  a  few  months,  in  a 
character  as  new  to  ourselves  as  our  real  position  is 
unsuspected  by  those  amongst  whom  we  travel. 

Whatever  may  have  been  this  immediate  cause 
of  our  journey — of  which  more  anon — much  of  my 
serious  inquiry  did,  I  own,  tend  to  the  study  of  the 
United  States  as  a  scene  for  agricultural  emigra- 
tion. Those,  therefore,  who  have  more  health  and 
strength  than  money,  and  those  who  have  more 
sons  than  means  of  advancing  them  in  England,  may 
gather  from  these  pages  the  result  of  much  investi- 
gation : — while  those  who  care  to  know  the  social 
and  religious  state  of  the  emigrant's  future  home,  or 
only  to  see  the  Americans  as  they  are  amongst  them- 
selves in  the  far  Western  States — when  they  little 
think  that  he,  whom  they  please  to  look  down  upon 
as  a  poor  family  emigrant,  is  a  "chiel  amang  them 
taking  notes" — these,  also,  will  necessarily  find  here 
much  matter  suited  to  their  lighter  tastes. 

Grosvenor  Street, 
30th  April  1855. 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Bordeaux. 

Residence  in  a  convent. — The  villa. — The  climate. — 
The  vineyards  of  Bordeaux. — The  ex-minister,  De 
Peyronnet,  parboiled. — The  archbishop  and  the 
cure. — Agen  of  the  Fat  Geese. — French  doctors. — 
Vessels  to  America. — The  plate  chests. — The  Belle 
Assize. — Emigration. — The  Bosquet  de  Flore. — 
Departure. — Working  consuls  and  gentlemen  con- 
suls ...... 

CHAPTER    II. 

"  The  Kate  Hunter." 

The  lap-dog. — The  parrot. — The  dormouse. — The 
dream. — Search  for  a  vessel. — The  outward-bound. 
— Torbay. — Life  on  board. — Young  "  Go-ahead." 
Captain  Parsons. — Icebergs. — Mysterious  causes  of 
our  mode  of  travel. — Our  yacht. — Accidents. — The 
pilot. — Our  invalid  .... 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER   III. 

New  York. 
Quarantine. — The  Custom-house  officer. — Irish  car- 
men and  porters. — Our  children  on  board. — Broad- 
way.— American  omnibuses. — The  post-office. — 
The  money-changer. — Speculation. — The  cobler. — 
Hotels. — Gentle  and  simple. — A  chambermaid. — 
Private  rooms  .  .  .  •  .64 

CHAPTER    IV. 

The  River  and,  the  Railroad. 

A  sharp  man. — The  Irish  maid. — The  river  boat. — 
The  Hudson. — West  Point. — The  railway  versus 
the  river. — Selling  pets. — The  New  World  aground. 
— Albany. — The  sharp  agency. — An  Albany  waiter. 
— The  railway  cars. — British  delicacy. — First  class 
trains. — The  scenery. — Rome. — Oneida. — Cayuga 
Lake. — Geneva. — The  burning  spring. — Rochester     94 

CHAPTER  V. 
Niagara  Falls. 
The  "gals".— Buffalo.— The  churches.— St.  Patrick's 
church. — The  lapdog. — The  railway  accident. — The 
runaway  slave. — Roasting  and  shooting  niggers. — 
Niagara  Falls. — Goat  or  Iris  Island. — The  Horse- 
shoe Fall.— Mr.  Geo.  W.  Sims  and  the  ferry.— 
Canadian  and  American  manners. — The  lost  hat. — 
Canadian  and  American  prosperity  .  .120 


CONTENTS.  Ml 

I'AGE 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Lake  Erie. 

The  mayor  of  Buffalo  and  the  porters. — The  night  of 
of  a  nurse. — Lake  Erie. — Cross  questions  and  crooked 
answers.  — Emigration. — Sandusky  City.  — Labels 
for  railway  luggage. — Through  the  forest. — Log- 
houses  and  frame-houses. — A  worm  fence. — Clear- 
ings.— Agriculture  of  Ohio. — Arrival  at  Cincinnati     146 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Cincinnati. 

The  Burnet  House  Hotel. — The  Queen  City  of  the 
West.— Bill  of  fare  in  Ohio.— The  cathedral.— The 
Catholics. — The  author's  politico-religious  creed. — 
The  calendar. — The  ecclesiastical  seminary. — The 
upper  crust  of  Cincinnati. — Search  for  a  location.  — 
Porkopolis. — The  ladies'  saloon. — Honorary  titles. 
— The  banker. — Hours  of  business. — Engravings 
on  paper  money      .  .  .  .  .   1 75 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

The  Pledge. 

Father  Mathew. — Another  pledge. — The  cathedral. — 
Mrs.Trollope. — Incendiarism. — Jesuits. — Cardinals. 
—  American  Catholics. — Irish  emigrants. — The 
Maine  liquor  law. — Forwards  !        .  .  .211 


Vlii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    IX. 

The  Ohio. 
Rivers  of  England  and  of  America.— Kentucky  or 
Ohio  :  freedom  or  slavery. — Plan  for  emancipation 
of  slaves.— La  Belle  Riviere. — Vineyards.— Cholera. 
— Maddison. — The  Mammoth  Cave.— Aspect  of 
Indiana      ...•••   228 

CHAPTER    X. 

Indianapolis. 

Hotel  at  Indianapolis.— Punkahs. — Manners  of  Ame- 
ricans.— A  gone  'coon. — Difficulty  of  going  further. 
— An  isolated  priest. — Colonel  and  Mrs.  Drake. — 
Plan  of  American  cities. — A  morning  visit. — A  spirit 
shop.— The  Capitol.— "Walks.  —  Buying  horses.— 
Buying  a  wagon. — A  carpenter. — American  English. 
— Buying  a  location. — The  Indiana  Sentinel. — Ame- 
rican newspapers. — Fashionable  shops        .  .  225 

CHAPTER   XI. 

The  Wagon. 

Our  new  equipage. — Its  triumphs  and  pleasures. — 
Highway  robbers. — Baiting. — The  Cholera  House. 
—Long's  House. — An  American  woman. — Mount 
Meridian. — The  National  Road. — Mr.  Townsend. — 
Evening  fancies. — Records  of  children. — Dr.  Ush- 

aw's A  land-jobber. — Van  Buren. — Premonitory 

symptoms  .....  292 


THE   WABASH. 


CHAPTER  THE  FIRST. 


BORDEAUX. 

Residence  in  a  convent — The  villa — The  climate — The  vineyards 
of  Bordeaux — The  ex-minister,  de  Peyronnet,  parboiled — 
The  archbishop  and  the  cure — Agen  of  the  fat  geese — French 
doctors — Vessels  to  America — The  plate  chests — The  Belle 
Assize — Emigration — The  bosquet  de  Flore — Departure — 
Working  consuls  and  gentlemen  consuls. 

Bordeaux  is  a  magnificent  city.  Its  open 
squares,  its  "  allees",  its  "  courses"  bordered 
by  trees,  and  its  public  buildings,  make  parts 
of  it  more  imposing  than  the  best  quarters  of 
any  other  town  in  Europe — excepting,  always, 
Paris.  The  private  houses  of  its  merchants 
and  the  magnificent  colonnade  of  its  theatre 
give  evidence  of  the  wealth  of  its  inhabitants  : 
and  its  countless  shops  of  "  charcu  tiers",  piled 
with  every  delicacy,  from  Strasbourg  and  Pe- 
rigeux  pies  to  the  native  wines  of  the  district, 
make  the  mouth  of  the  stranger  water,  while 
he  accuses  the  inhospitality  of  the  prefet  (M. 


THE  WABASH. 


Neveu)  which  debars  him  from  being  intro- 
duced there  where  his  excited  appetite  might 
be  gratified,  and  the  memory  of  the  prefecture 
embalmed  with  that  of  trouffies  and  of  fat 
geese  from  Agen. 

Unlike  the  holders  of  most  prefectures  in 
France,  M.  Neveu  treats  English  visitors  to 
the  town  with  marked  neglect. 

But  strangers  visit  not  Bordeaux  as  a  place 
of  residence.  Instinct  seems  to  have  guided 
our  travellers  in  the  selection  of  quarters  re- 
commended by  climate,  by  scenery,  by  cheap- 
ness of  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life,  or 
by  the  hospitality  of  the  natives ;  and  none  of 
these  attract  to  Bordeaux.  In  vain,  therefore, 
did  we  seek  through  every  quarter  of  the  town 
for  a  furnished  apartment  that  we  might  lease 
for  a  time  ;  a  single  room,  or  even  two  or  three 
"  chambres  garnies",  were  to  be  had ;  but  a 
house,  or  even  a  large  furnished  apartment, 
was  no  more  to  be  met  with  than  bashfulness 
in  a  Gascon. 

At  length,  we  turned  us  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  city.  Our  old  banker,  M.  Gues- 
tier,  told  us  that  he  had  a  chateau  to  let  in 


CHAP  I. BORDEAUX.  6 

what  was  considered  the  paradise  of  Bordeaux. 
We  saw  it ;  agreed  to  his  terms ;  and  were 
about  to  pay  him  a  year's  rent  in  advance, 
when  he  said,  "  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  I  wish 
to  sell  the  property,  and  must  reserve  the  right 
of  doing  so." 

"  Be  it  so,"  I  replied ;  "  in  that  case,  you 
must  return  an  amount  of  the  rent  propor- 
tioned to  the  term  which  we  shall  have  surren- 
dered." 

"  Pardonnez-moi,"  he  answered.  "  If  I  sell 
during  the  first  three  months  of  your  occu- 
pancy, I  will  do  so ;  but  if  after  that  time,  I 
do  not  return  anything." 

I  made  my  bow,  and  took  an  affectionate 
leave  of  M.  Guestier. 

Fruitless,  however,  were  all  our  inquiries 
for  a  residence  ;  till  a  good  priest  informed  us 
that  the  nuns  of  Talence,  near  the  banker's 
chateau,  would  let  us  the  main  building  of 
their  convent,  reserving  only  a  wing  for  them- 
selves. We  inspected  and  engaged  it  for  a 
month. 

"  And  why,"  asked  the  cure,  when,  at  the 
end  of  the  month,  we  removed   to   another 


4  THE  WABASH. 

house,  "  why  have   you    quitted   these  good 
nuns  (. 

"  I  was  fearful  of  growing  into  a  nun  my- 
self, M.  le  Cure.  I  met  nuns  at  every  corner. 
Instead  of  having  that  wing  of  the  house  to 
ourselves,  as  covenanted,  we  found  that  the 
garret  above  us  was  the  dormitory  of  the  holy 
sisters ;  and  there  was,  consequently,  a  conti- 
nual rush  of  religieuses  from  the  bottom  to  the 
topmost  story.  Was  I  going  to  the  cupboard 
in  the  anteroom  for  a  bottle  of  choice  wine,  a 
nun  was  sure  to  pop  out  of  her  neighbouring 
laundry  upon  me ;  on  the  staircase,  I  met  a 
couple  of  nuns,  with  a  plate  of  milk,  coaxing 
a  cat  to  follow  them  up  to  their  dormitory; 
and  once,  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  as  I  was 
hurrying  clown  to  tea,  I  came  full  tilt  against 
a  veiled  lady  in  black  who  was  rushing  towards 
the  stairs,  and  to  whom,  mistaking  her  for  my 
daughter,  I  opened  wide  my  arms." 

The  Cure  laughed  amazingly. 

"  But  I  hope  you  parted  from  them  on  good 
terms  ?"  he  asked. 

"  On  the  best  in  the  world,"  I  replied. 
••  Many  little  acts  of  politeness  had  passed  be- 


I 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  0 

tween  us  and  the  reverend  mother.  Once  upon 
a  time,  for  example,  our  footman  had,  with 
much  ceremony,  introduced  to  our  sitting  room 
two  of  the  nuns,  bearing  between  them,  like  a 
royal  crown  upon  a  cushion,  a  small  glass  vase, 
about  the  size  of  a  coffee  cup,  which  they  pre- 
sented to  us  with  much  solemnity,  and  with 
the  compliments  of  the  reverend  mother,  who 
prayed  that  we  would  accept  a  '  pot  de  confi- 
tures' of  their  own  making.  Of  course,  we 
received  it  with  all  decorum,  and  eat  the  pre- 
serve with  a  kind  of  pious  gastronomic  delec- 
tation. But,  however,  in  the  bill  that  two  of 
the  ^sisterhood  presented  when  we  left  the 
apartment,  I  was  puzzled  to  read  the  follow- 
ing charge. 

"  '  For  a  pot  de  confiture     .     .     Ofr.  5c' 
"  '  Five  centimes,  one  halfpenny  for  a  pot  of 
preserve !'  I  exclaimed :  '  but,  Mesdames,  did 
we  not  enjoy  that  confiture  as  a  token  of  your 
beneficence  V 

"  '  But  the  pot,  Monsieur,'  answered  the 
aide-de-camp,  casting  down  her  eyes  and  fold- 
ing her  hands  in  the   sleeves  of  her  ample 


6  THE  WABASH. 

dress ;  '  the  charge  of  five  centimes  is  for  the 
glass  pot  that  contained  the  confitures.' 

"  '  A  thousand  pardons !  forgive  my  stu- 
pidity !'  I  replied ;  and  I  bethought  me  of  the 
story  of  the  king  of  France  and  the  dish  of 
partridges." 

"  What  is  the  story  1"  asked  the  cure. 

"  A  king  of  France,"  I  answered,  "  having 
much  relished  some  stewed  partridges,  said  to 
one  of  his  people  in  attendance,  '  Give  that 
dish  to  Pierron,  the  fool.'  Joyfully  did  the 
fool  stretch  to  receive  it,  and,  examining  the 
gold  dish  with  glee,  exclaimed, '  What  a  beau- 
tiful platter !  It  is  all  gold !  Thanks,  Mon- 
seigneur,  for  your  royal  gift !  But  the  stewed 
partridges — may  I  have  the  stewed  partridges 
also  V  " 

"  The  anecdote  is  apposite,"  said  the  cure 
laughing ;  "  though  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
circumstances  are  reversed  in  this  instance, 
and  that  the  preserve  was  worth  more  than 
the  pot." 

A  majestic  old  lady,  in  truth,  was  the  Re- 
verend Mother.     Barely  five  feet   high,   she 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  < 

must  have  been  nearly  as  much  in  diameter ; 
and  she  engulfed  immense  quantities  of  snuff 
as  she  told  us  how  heaven  had  favoured  her 
since  she  had  run  away  from  the  house  of  her 
father,  who  objected  to  her  taking  the  veil 
(this  I  thought  a  questionable  piece  of  mo- 
rality) ;  and  how,  from  the  slim  girl  she  was 
then,  she  had  grown  and  grown  while  residing 
in  Gascony  and  drinking  Bordeaux  wine.  She 
expressed  admiration  of  our  large  family  ;  said 
that  such  were  always  blessed  of  heaven;  and 
was  most  anxious  to  induce  some  of  our  daugh- 
ters to  remain  with  her. 

"  But,  Madame !"  I  exclaimed,  "  if  heaven 
approves  large  families,  surely  you  would  not 
counteract  its  possible  designs  by  putting  my 
daughters  out  of  the  way  of  fulfilling  them — 

"  What's  killing  offspring,  whether  few  or  many, 
To  cutting  off  one's  chance  of  having  any  ?" 

"  You  think  me  silenced  by  your  argu- 
ment !"  she  cried  triumphantly.  "  Know  that 
T  have  many  more  children  than  you.  This 
order  of  religieuses,  it  is  I  who  founded  it ;  and 
it  already  numbers  more  than  four  hundred 
and  fifty  members  in  France." 


8  THE  WABASH. 

This  was  true :  and  the  institution  itself  ap- 
peared to  be  an  useful  one.  Although  the 
Reverend  Mother  boasted  herself  to  be  of  a 
gentleman's  family,  most  of  the  sisters  appeared 
to  have  been  taken  from  the  lower  orders.  In 
peace  and  piety,  they  devoted  themselves  to 
the  instruction  of  poor  children,  while  they 
cultivated  little  farms  around  the  several  houses 
they  had  established  in  many  neighbourhoods 
of  poverty  and  ignorance.  Thus  the  vineyard 
around  the  convent  was  dug  and  cultivated  by 
the  sisters ;  the  cows  were  watched  and  tended 
by  them  as  they  industriously  knitted  or  turned 
the  spindle ;  and  the  acacia  poles  (cut  down  to 
serve  as  props  to  support  the  vines)  were  peeled 
by  them  of  their  rind  for  no  other  reason  that 
they  were  aware  of,  they  told  me,  than  that 
the  Reverend  Mother  had  ordered  them  to  do 
so.  I  learned,  however,  from  their  labourer 
that,  when  thus  peeled,  they  lasted  much 
longer  in  the  ground. 

I  am  afraid  that  we  all  rejoiced  to  leave  the 
convent ;  and  to  take  possession  of  an  entire 
villa  in  what  was  considered  a  beautiful  gar- 
den in  this  same  commune  of  Talence.     The 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  y 

proprietor  had  been  secretary  to  the  Horticul- 
tural Society  of  Bordeaux  ;  and  the  garden 
showed  ample  evidence  to  his  love  of  flowers. 
It  had  greenhouses  stocked  with  plants  and 
with  orange-trees  in  pots,  that  were  carried 
out  into  the  open  air  in  summer.  Straight 
rows  of  beech  trees  diverged  from  the  front 
of  the  house,  and  these,  being  intersected  by 
high  hedges  clipped  and  trimmed,  gave  us 
walks  sheltered  and  shaded  as  much  as  the 
winter  sun  or  the  winds  of  that  mild  climate 
made  requisite. 

The  climate  of  Bordeaux  seems,  in  truth,  to 
be  a  very  mild  one.  Of  winter,  we  had  none. 
Xo  high  mountains  are  near  to  chill  the  air 
with  their  snowy  mantles  or  intercept  the  salt 
breezes  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  The  whole 
country  about  us  was  a  dead  flat : — beautiful 
to  the  eyes  of  the  landowners,  because  it  pro- 
duced some  of  the  best  wines  of  the  province; 
but  the  scenery  of  which  was  uninteresting  to 
any  but  an  agriculturalist — or  a  musician.  I 
say  a  musician,  because  such  an  one  only 
could  enjoy  the  hoarse  concert  which  made 
the  whole  air  vocal  from  sunset  till  dark.    The 

b3 


10  THE  WABASH. 

Talence  nightingales,  as  I  somewhat  annoyed 
the  natives  by  calling  them,  then  opened  their 
mouths  ;  and  the  croaking  that  arose  from 
pools  and  ditches,  invisible  by  day,  was  so  wide- 
spread, that  it  really  sounded  like  muffled 
drums  or  the  tramp  of  distant  cavalry. 

The  cultivation  of  the  vineyards  is  a  most 
laborious  and  scientific  work.  The  vines  are 
not  swung  from  tree  to  tree  as  in  some  parts 
of  Italy  ;  nor  are  they  left  to  trail  on  the  earth, 
like  weak  gooseberry  bushes,  as  in  Provence  : 
they  are  planted  in  rows  and  tied  to  poles, 
such  as  we  had  seen  the  good  nuns  peel 
"  because  reverend  mother  ordered  them  to 
do  so".  The  earth  between  the  rows  is  care- 
fully dug  with  pronged  forks  two  or  three 
times  during  the  summer,  and  mould  is  drawn 
round  the  roots :  at  the  first  digging,  young 
plants  are  set  in  to  replace  those  that  have 
died,  and  manure  is  carefully  laid  at  the  foot 
of  each.  Twice  are  they  pruned :  and  in  such 
a  manner  as  not  to  anticipate  that  of  fu- 
ture years  while  preparing  for  the  crop  of  the 
ensuing  summer.  The  facility  of  doing  this, 
in  fact,  prevents  prudent  proprietors  of  vine- 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  11 

yards  from  letting  their  farms :  the  tenant 
might  too  easily  secure  the  harvest  of  years, 
and  exhaust  the  plants  while  pruning  them 
apparently  for  his  own  crop.  But  as  the  la- 
bour, when  fairly  done,  is  quite  one  of  routine, 
a  foreman  only  is  required  to  the  most  exten- 
sive vineyards.  Each  proprietor  farming  his 
own  land  knows  how  many  diggings  it  ought 
to  have,  and  what  ought  to  be  the  charge  for 
each  :  and  each  one  knows  how  many  barrels 
of  wine  each  acre,  or  measure  of  land  as  they 
call  it,  and  it  is  about  the  same,  ought  to  pro- 
duce. The  value  of  the  produce  of  a  good 
acre  of  vineyard  was  about  ,£30. 

But  complaints  were  then  as  loud  amongst 
the  wine  growers  as  they  are  now.  Bread 
was  then  so  dear,  that  M.  de  Peyronnet  com- 
plained to  me  that  the  people  could  not  afford 
to  buy  the  inferior  coarse  wines,  such  as  the 
people  only  drink  and  such  alone  as  his  lands 
produced.  He  was  a  pleasant  man,  this  Comte 
de  Peyronnet,  ex-minister  of  Charles  X,  who 
is  said  alike  to  have  instigated  and  to  have 
disapproved  the  ordonnanccs  that  caused  his 
sovereign  to  be  expelled  from  France.     I  met 


12  THE  WABASH. 

him,  and  was  first  introduced  to  him  at  a  din- 
ner party  at  the  palace  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Bordeaux,  now  Cardinal  Donnet.  On  entering 
I  observed  a  very  gentlemanly,  good-looking 
man  of  between  sixty  and  seventy,  who,  clad 
in  tights  and  pumps,  was  affectionately  nurs- 
ing his  left  leg  on  his  right  knee  :  people  were 
asking  him  about  his  lameness,  and,  when  I 
was  introduced  to  him,  he  explained  to  me,  as 
to  a  stranger,  how  it  had  chanced. 

"  I  had  told  my  servant,"  he  said,  "  to  put 
in  my  bedroom  a  footbath  full  of  warm  water, 
as  I  wished  to  soak  my  feet :  what  did  the 
fellow  do  but  set  it  full  of  boiling  water  !  1 
suspected  nothing  of  this,  and  pulled  off  my 
stocking  and  plunged  my  foot  in.  The  water 
was  boiling,  but,  ma  foi,  I  was  not  the  man  to 
retreat,  'je  ne  voulais  pas  broncher,'  and  so, 
as  it  was  in,  I  e'en  left  it  there.  When  I  took 
it  out,  all  the  skin  came  off  in  the  towel." 

"  Just  the  kind  of  obstinacy  which  cost  his 
sovereign  the  throne  of  France,"  I  thought. 

"  What  a  fool !"  exclaimed  a  sensible  Eng- 
lishman, to  whom  I  repeated  the  anecdote. 

I  never  tasted  such  a  variety  of  wines,  nor 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  13 

heard  so  much  talk  on  their  several  merits,  as 
at  this  dinner  party  at  the  Archbishop's.  This 
was  naturally  the  case.  Amongst  twenty-four 
people  whose  revenues  wTere  dependant  upon 
wine,  what  subject  could  be  so  interesting  ? 
They  tasted  as  farmers  and  connoisseurs :  no 
one  committed  the  slightest  excess  in  quantity. 
The  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  since  made  a 
Cardinal,  had  been  brought  to  my  house  by 
the  Cure  of  our  parish,  one  day  when  he 
administered  Confirmation  in  the  church  of 
Talence.  Several  members  of  my  family  had 
received  the  Sacrament  from  his  hands,  and 
so  rare  are  English  residents  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood, that  he  could  not  but  feel  interested 
in  us.  I  know  not  whether  he  was  gratified 
or  not  by  the  extra  homage  we  paid  him  by 
bending  the  knee  and  asking  for  his  blessing 
when  we  were  presented  to  him  ;  but  I  found 
that  modern  France  denies  such  honour  to  its 
Bishops.  It  is  a  question  of  etiquette.  They 
had  been  preaching  a  mission,  as  it  is  called, 
at  Talence  ;  that  is  to  say,  for  some  weeks  the 
Cure  had  been  instructing  his  flock  with  extra 
care,  and  preparing  them  for  the  Confirma- 


14  THE  WABASH. 

tion ;  and,  for  the  last  fortnight,  he  had  called 
in  a  priest  from  a  distance  to  help  him.  The 
church  had  been  crowded  ;  for  this  was  a  new 
man,  and  was  rather  celebrated  as  a  preacher. 
He  not  only  discoursed  well  on  his  subject, 
but  he  tore  it  into  tatters,  and  exhausted  it 
and  himself  with  his  own  vehemence  :  so  dif- 
ferent was  his  style  from  the  sensible,  argumen- 
tative, familiar,  and  sometimes  impassioned 
though  quiet  eloquence  of  our  own  Cure,  that 
all  run  after  him,  as  a  matter  of  course.  M. 
le  Cure  was  one  of  the  cleverest  and  most  ex- 
emplary of  the  many  good  parish  priests  I  have 
ever  met  with.  He  was  learned  without  pedan- 
try; cheerful  without  levity;  friendly  with  his 
flock,  without  familiarity.  He  was  very  fond 
of  music,  and  selected  a  goodly  number  of  boys 
and  girls  whom  he  assiduously  taught  to  sing, 
while  he  accompanied  them  himself  on  a  sera- 
phine.  He  introduced  a  great  deal  of  singing 
of  Cantiques  in  French  into  the  service,  and  he 
thus  not  only  drew  people  to  his  church  by 
giving  them  the  pleasure  of  hearing  their  own 
sweet  voices  uplifted  in  verses  which  they  un- 
derstood, but  he  made  the  very  Cantiques  them- 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  15 

selves  popular  throughout  the  district,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  profane  ballads  which  theysup- 
planted.  I  own  I  have  been  greatly  surprised 
to  hear  noisy  parties  of  men  at  the  country  wine 
shops,  all  joining  in  chorus  and  singing  our 
Cure's  Cantiques  over  their  cups.  Nay,  the 
Archbishop  himself,  when  he  took  us  to  see 
his  country  seat  near  Bordeaux,  which  he  was 
very  anxious  we  should  rent,  constantly  forgot 
himself  and  began  humming  the  Talence  Can- 
tiques as  he  wandered  from  tree  to  tree,  noting 
the  blossoms  and  the  chances  of  a  crop  of  fruit 
from  his  orchard. 

They  were  contented  men,  the  Cure  and 
the  Archbishop :  the  latter  would  have  suf- 
fered from  the  failure  of  his  little  crops  but 
that  the  Government  paid  him  6,000  francs  (or 
£240  a-year)  as  an  archiepiscopal  revenue;  and 
the  Cure  must  have  starved  outright,  but  that 
the  Government  allowed  him,  in  his  quality 
of  Cure,  800  francs  (or  £32)  a-year.  On  these 
incomes,  they  were  contented  and  merry.  The 
Cure  was  rebuilding  his  pretty  little  church, 
and  the  Archbishop  kept  up  all  the  state  pro- 
per to  his  high  rank. 


16  THE  WABASH. 

That  church  at  Talence  was  a  favourite  place 
of  pilgrimage  for  the  good  people  of  Bordeaux, 
who  made  constant  pleasure  parties  to  it ;  and 
after  hearing  mass  and  fulfilling  their  vows, 
had  merry  breakfasts  in  the  little  garden  and 
arbours  around  it.  The  Cure  insisted  that 
this  was  harmless  and  innocent  recreation  ; 
and  not  the  less  so  that  religious  devotions 
had  preceded  it ;  nor  would  he  admit  that  the 
religious  devotion  was  profaned  by  the  friendly 
breakfast  that  was  to  follow.  Of  the  miracles 
thought  to  be  wrought  by  prayer  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, he  left  each  one  to  judge  for  himself. 
As  the  popular  sentiment  moved  each  one  to 
more  fervent  prayer  in  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame  de  Talence  than  elsewhere,  their  prayers, 
he  said,  were  more  likely  to  be  granted  ;  and 
hence  virtue  came  to  be  attributed  to  the 
church  itself.  The  Cure  did  express  a  wish 
that  the  people  would  not  tie  garlands  of 
flowers  and  bits  of  tawdry  finery  round  a 
mutilated  colossal  statue  of  an  angel,  which 
they  took  to  be  a  Madonna,  and  which,  having 
been  removed  from  the  old  church  when  it 
was  rebuilt,  had  been  laid  neglected  against  a 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  17 

tree  in  his  garden.  But  the  intention  was  de- 
votional ;  and  how  could  he  risk  offending  the 
devotees  of  his  parish  by  charging  them  with 
indecorum  and  apparent  idolatry,  of  which 
they  had  never  dreamed  % 

This  fear  of  giving  offence  must  always, 
more  or  less,  act  upon  ministers  who  are  de- 
pendent upon  their  flocks.  On  the  day  when 
the  Archbishop  had  given  confirmation  in  the 
church,  the  Cure  had  sent  to  borrow  our  fish- 
kettle,  as  the  prelate  was  to  dine  with  him, 
and  a  lady  of  Talence  had  presented  him  with 
a  magnificent  turbot.  The  kettle  was  lent, 
and  we  went  to  church :  there  we  took  our 
position  in  an  open  space  near  the  altar ;  and 
when  the  good  priest  requested  us  to  move 
elsewhere,  I  resolutely  refused  to  do  so,  as  I 
could  not  understand  that  the  space  was  really 
wanted  for  the  ceremonial.  He  urged  me 
much,  and  said  afterwards,  "  I  knew  I  should 
get  such  a  scolding  for  allowing  you  to  stay 
there  from  Madame  la  Devote,  for  I  had  just 
turned  herself  from  the  place  ;  and  it  was  she 
who  had  given  me  the  turbot!" 

In  the  United  States  of  America,  all  minis- 


18  THE  WABASH. 

ters  of  religion  are  dependent  upon  the  support 
of  their  followers,  and  I  was  about  to  see  how 
the  principle  would  work  there  against  a  lady 
who  gave  a  turbot ! 

One  winter's  morning  about  five  o'clock, 
consequently  in  the  dark,  we  made  our  way 
on  board  a  little  steamer  that  lay  near  one  of 
the  piers  of  Bordeaux ;  and  when  the  sun 
rose,  found  ourselves  going  up  a  broad  stream 
between  flat  and  sedgy  banks,  above  which 
nothing1  was  to  be  seen  on  either  side.  There 
was  a  fair  number  of  country  people  on  the 
deck,  which  was  encumbered  with  empty  hen- 
coops, returning  to  the  farmhouses  which  sup- 
plied Bordeaux  with  poultry  and  the  famous 
fat  geese  of  Agen.  On — on  went  the  steamer 
for  about  one  hundred  miles,  and  little  could 
we  see  on  either  side  beyond  the  reeds  or  the 
willows  that  covered  the  fenny  banks.  Occa- 
sionally, as  near  La  Reoile  or  Marmande,  a 
small  bluff  rose  above  the  water;  but  there 
was  no  scenery  that  could  be  called  the  least 
pretty  until  we  came  to  the  dingy  old  town  of 
Agen,  with  its  narrow  streets  bounded  by  low- 
browed  arcades,    on   which    the    old    houses 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  19 

toppled  over,  as  they  seemed  to  have  done  for 
the  last  thousand  years.  Why,  then,  do  I  re- 
cord this  two  days'  trip  up  the  great  Garonne  1 
I  do  so,  because  the  mind,  now  looking  back 
to  a  country  where  the  government  has  created 
no  public  works,  but  where  popular  energy 
has  covered  the  wilderness  with  animation, 
marvels  to  think  of  the  many  splendid  bridges, 
erected  by  the  state,  that  spanned  this  river 
from  either  side,  while  its  waters,  running 
through  populous  districts  and  into  one  of  the 
busiest  commercial  sea-ports  of  France,  were 
unthought  of  as  a  means  of  traffic,  and  bore 
upon  their  ample  breast  only  our  own  miserable 
steamer  and  its  fellow  of  the  alternate  days, 
and  a  few  small  barges  that  seemed  to  ply 
from  village  to  village — heedless  of  the  wide 
world  which  the  ocean  opened  to  them  a  few 
leagues  lower  down  !  So  impossible  is  it  for 
a  government  to  supply  the  lack  of  individual 
and  national  energy  !  so  impossible  is  it  for 
national  and  individual  energy  to  lie  dormant, 
although  unassisted  by  government ! 

And  now,  the  time  was  at  hand  when  we 
were  to  quit  Talence,  and  seek  those  stirring 


20  THE  WABASH. 

wildernesses.  One  of  my  daughters  had  been 
seriously  unwell.  Dr.  Chaumet,  an  eminent 
physician  of  Bordeaux,  had  attended  her  ;  and, 
with  blisters  and  leeches,  had  checked  what  he 
believed  to  be  a  dangerous  disease  of  the 
lungs.  On  the  7th  of  April,  she  wTas  much 
better,  and  he  told  me  he  had  hopes  of  re- 
storing her  health:  "This  month",  said  he, 
"  I  will  give  cod's  liver  oil :  in  May,  she  shall 
change  it  for  eau  de  goudron :  in  June,  she 
shall  live  upon  ass's  milk  :  in  July,  we  will 
give  her  citrate  of  iron  and  eau  de  goudron 
again  ;  and  a  little  time  after  that,  she  will 
begin  to  gain  strength."  Who  will  infuse  a 
little  of  the  energy  and  life  of  which  I  was 
speaking,  into  the  practice  of  continental  medi- 
cine !  I  wrote  down  the  doctor's  plan  of  treat- 
ment, and  told  him  that,  having  consulted  our 
daughter  upon  it,  she  herself  said  that  nothing 
would  cure  her  but  a  long  sea  voyage — that 
she  panted  for  the  sea ;  and  that  we  were, 
therefore,  about  to  start  in  a  sailing  vessel  for 
the  New  World.  I  twice  called  upon  him, 
and  requested  him,  as  his  countryman  advised 
me,  to  send  in  his  bill.     I  know  not  if  he  was 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  21 

annoyed  at  our  cutting  short  the  five  months  ill- 
ness he  had  foretold  before  convalescence  should 
begin  ;  but  he  heeded  not  my  request,  and  we 
are  still  his  debtors  for  a  few  francs. 

I  doubted  not  that  we  should  find  regular 
liners,  sailing  packets,  from  Bordeaux,  the 
third  sea  port  in  France,  to  New  York  or  some 
other  portion  of  the  United  States  ;  and  began 
my  enquiries  accordingly.  Imagine  my  sur- 
prise, when  I  was  told  that  such  were  unknown 
in  these  waters  !  Behold  me  then  in  a  boat, 
rowing  about  the  broad  Gironde,  which  forms 
the  harbour  of  Bordeaux,  and  boarding  every 
vessel  that  was  outward  bound  to  the  New 
World.  There  were  three  only!  One  of  them 
was  a  little  Swedish  vessel,  which  I  remember 
because  it  was  painted  green,  from  the  mast 
head  to  the  keel,  and  was  called  by  some  name 
which  sounded  like  "  The  Twistedellen",  and 
which  was  so  small,  that  I  would  not  go  on 
board ;  and  another  from  New  York,  which 
would  sail  about  a  fortnight  before  I  could  be 
ready  to  go.  I  asked  the  captain,  if  he  could 
not  defer  his  voyage,  and  he  frankly  replied  : 
"  Well,  now  ;  if  you  make  it  worth  a  captain's 


22  THE  WABASH. 

while  not  to  put  to  sea,  I  guess  he  can  always 
find  something  in  his  boat  to  keep  him  a  week 
or  so  longer ;  but  I  can't  wait  a  fortnight." 

At  length,  I  found  a  French  vessel  called 
the  "  Belle  Assize  ",  which  had  been  just  built 
by  Messrs.  Rothschild,  and  was  to  start  about 
my  time,  on  her  first  voyage  with  a  cargo  of 
claret  to  New  Orleans.  She  was  a  beautiful 
vessel,  apparently  too  roomy  in  her  bulk  to  be  a 
fast  sailer ;  but  with  excellent  accommodation 
for  a  few  passengers.  The  officers  were  a 
superior  class  of  men,  taken  from  the  repub- 
lican navy ;  for,  in  those  days,  there  was  a 
republic  with  a  president  in  France.  New 
Orleans  was  not  the  part  at  which  we  wished 
to  land  ;  but  as  we  had  planned  to  spend  the 
next  winter  at  St.  Louis,  it  mattered  little 
whether  we  should  land  at  New  Orleans,  and 
go  up  the  Mississippi ;  or  whether  we  should 
reach  it  from  New  York,  and  descend  the  king 
of  rivers  on  our  return  to  Europe.  The  terms 
were  soon  agreed  upon,  and  Ave  began  our 
preparations. 

I  had  much  difficulty  in  finding  at  Bordeaux 
any  modern  map  of  the  United  States :  those 


CHAP.   1. BORDEAUX.  23 

which  the  stationers  offered  me  as  most  recent, 
showed  only  wilds  and  rivers,  where  I  knew 
several  new  states  to  have  been  founded ;  and 
I  wish  here  to  record  my  thanks  to  the  United 
States  Consul  at  Bordeaux,  who  invited  me  to 
his  rooms,  that  I  might  study,  as  often  as  I 
pleased,  his  great  map  of  the  Union  ;  and  who 
gave  me  much  information  with  frankness 
and  cordiality.  It  seems  familiarly  strange  to 
me  now,  (sitting,  as  I  am,  at  my  window  at 
Leghorn,  and  overlooking  the  green  Mediter- 
ranean,) it  seems  familiarly  strange  to  me  now 
that  little  sketch  of  the  Central  States  of  North 
America  which  lies  beside  me  in  my  pocket 
book,  as  I  then  copied  it  from  the  consul's 
map,  and  could  hardly  realise  the  magnitude 
of  the  localities  I  wras  so  soon  to  travel  over  ! 

We  had  one  fatiguing  day's  work  at  the 
French  custom  house.  In  order  to  export  our 
plate  from  the  country,  and  recover  the  deposit, 
(forty-four  francs  on  every  kilogramme)  which 
is  required  on  all  old  English  plate  brought  in 
for  private  use,  it  was  necessary  that  the  whole 
should  be  verified.  Behold  then  our  three 
chests  opened,  and  their  contents  laid  out  on 


24  THE  WABASH. 

the  dressers  and  tables  of  the  custom  house  ; 
behold  little  spoons  and  great  spoons  ;  little 
forks  and  great  forks  ;  behold  knives  and  dishes 
and  corner  dishes  and  cream  ewers  and  all  the 
apparatus  of  English  breakfast  and  dinner  ser- 
vices, exciting  the  wonder  and  the  smiles,  and 
sometimes  the  admiration  of  the  French  em- 
ployes as  they  sort  each  kind,  and  count  and 
weigh  it  separately  to  ascertain  whether,  in 
number  and  weight,  it  corresponds  with  the 
receipt  given  when  it  entered  the  country  ; 
behold  them  next  count  the  whole  number  of 
pieces  together,  and  weigh  them  in  one  lot  to 
see  if  the  totals  correspond  with  their  fractional 
entries  ;  .behold  them  next  replace  them  in  the 
chests  and  weigh  the  chests,  and  then  enclose 
the  chests  in  canvas,  cord  and  seal  them  with 
the  leaden  seal  of  the  Douane,  and  again  weigh 
them  all  as  they  lay  ready  for  the  voyage. 
What  a  labour  it  was  !  However,  this  was 
the  result,  as  they  entered  it  in  their  books : 
"  Three  cases,  Nos.  16,  20,  and  21,  weighing 
together  brut*'  that  is  gross,  "229  Kilos — stript 
220  Kilos :  containing  784  pieces  of  plate  for 
table,  weighing  together  real  net  weight  113 


CHAP.  I. BORDEAUX.  25 

Kilos,  132  grammes,  all  having  been  used. 
Summary  :  brut  weight  229  ;  brut,  but  stript 
of  canvass,  220.  Recognised  clear  weight,  113, 
132:  784  pieces."  What  a  labour  it  was  !  The 
conclusion  was  satisfactory  to  them,  and,  what 
we  more  cared  for,  it  was  satisfactory  to  us  ; 
as  we  were  able  to  receive  again,  so  soon  as 
they  should  be  certified  to  be  on  board  with 
the  seals  unbroken,  the  deposit  required  on 
entering  France. 

This,  and  other  matters  preparatory  to  our 
departure,  were  comfortably  settled,  and  the 
agent  for  the  Belle  Assize  brought  in  the 
draft  of  agreement  for  our  passage.  In  it,  was 
a  stipulation  that,  if  the  captain  should  put 
into  any  harbour  between  Bordeaux  and  New 
Orleans,  the  maintenance  of  my  family  while 
there  should  be  at  our  own  cost.  I  demurred 
to  this  clause,  and  though  assured  that  it  was 
a  usual  formulary  in  the  French  passenger 
navy,  I  went  to  consult  my  wife  upon  it.  In 
my  absence,  the  agent  and  a  clerk  who  accom- 
panied him  began  talking  together  ;  and  one 
of  my  children  came  and  told  me  that  they 
were  expressing  a  doubt  whether,  on  account 


26  THE    "WABASH. 

of  some  delay  in  the  delivery  of  the  cargo,  the 
Belle  Assize  would  reach  New  Orleans  before 
the  unhealthy  season  set  in.  The  dread  of 
the  yellow  fever  flashed  upon  us  !  I  had  not 
thought  it  began  so  soon !  I  took  advantage 
of  the  alleged  uncertainty  as  to  the  time  of 
the  vessel's  starting  ;  broke  off  our  treaty ;  and 
resolved  to  go  to  Havre  and  embark  thence 
for  New  York.  I  left  some  of  our  luggage  to 
go  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  and  this  I  insured 
at  Bordeaux  at  the  rate  of  K  per  cent. ;  the 
property,  money,  plate,  and  jewels  which  we 
took  with  us,  for  reasons  which  will  hereafter 
be  stated,  I  also  insured  in  the  same  office,  to 
go  from  Havre  to  New  York  in  a  sailing  ves- 
sel, at  \  and  at  f  per  cent.  The  French  are 
excellent  men  of  business  for  those  who  do 
not  grudge  the  time  needed  to  carry  out  all 
their  methodical  ways  ;  and  I  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  effecting  all  these  arrangements. 

Farewell  then  to  Talence.  Fourteen  weeks 
of  the  winter  and  spring  had  glided  away 
since  we  entered  the  quiet  village :  they  had 
glided  away  in  such  solitude  as  can  be  known 
by  a  young  father  and  mother  surrounded  by 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  27 

twelve  children — six  boys  and  six  girls — of 
ages  varying  from  two  to  nineteen.  The  reader 
must  become  acquainted  with  my  children. 
It  was  for  those  boys,  that  we  were  about  to 
undertake  the  voyage  to  America.  From  the 
time  of  the  birth  of  my  second  son,  I  had  de- 
termined that  emigration  to  the  back  woods 
would  be  the  happiest  lot  for  all  of  them  dur- 
ing my  life;  for  all,  but  the  eldest,  after  me. 
Fond  of  a  country  life  myself,  I  had  resolved 
that  the  chances  of  happiness  were  greater  to 
young  men  who  (first  endowed  with  classical 
education  such  as  is  given  in  Europe)  should 
occupy  lands  of  their  own  in  the  New  World, 
and  see  their  children  grow  up  around  them 
to  a  similar  lot,  than  they  would  be  to  the 
same  young  men  if  harnessed  to  any  of  the 
professions  in  England,  through  which  they 
perhaps  might,  by  the  time  they  were  sixty, 
earn  a  competence  on  which  to  marry  and 
breed  up  another  race  of  aspiring  paupers. 
Right  or  wrong,  this  had  been  my  settled  con- 
viction through  life  ;  and  we  would  now  take 
an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  country  with 
them  and  of  becoming  acquainted  with  their 


28  THE    WABASH. 

future  home,  while  our  daughters  were  not  old 
enough  to  require  our  residence  elsewhere. 
Three  of  our  sons  had  already  been  to  some 
of  our  best  Catholic  Colleges  in  England.  Our 
daughters  had  worked,  like  other  young  ladies, 
with  governesses  and  masters :  and  at  Talence, 
education  and  accomplishments  had  not  been 
neglected.  I  had  encouraged  my  children  to 
publish,  as  we  grandiloquently  called  it  in  the 
language  of  "  the  Trade",  a  family  periodical 
once  a  fortnight,  to  which  each  one  contri- 
buted such  thoughts  and  such  caligraphy  as 
he  or  she  could  command.  One  of  our  daugh- 
ters was  appointed  editor  of  the  Bosquet  de 
Flore,  as  we  entitled  the  journal;  and  three  years 
and  many  events  that  have  since  chanced, 
seem  to  have  given  sentiment  to  some  doggerel 
lines  that  I  addressed  to  her  in  the  first  num- 
ber, and  which  I  will  copy  here  in  order  to 
make  the  reader  better  acquainted  with  his 
future  fellow-travellers : 

Talence : 

A  place  in  France. 

Can  aught  enhance 

Its  beauties  or  advance 

Its  claims  to  love  ?     What  blessed  chance 

Has  led  us  through  a  weary  countrvdance 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  29 

By  steamer,  railroad,  diligence, 

To  this  sweet  pilgrimage  ?     I'd  break  a  lance 

With  whoso  said  one  word  against  the  manse 

We've  found  in  it,  and  make  them  elsewhere  prance. 

But  now  that  I've  worn  out  this  rhyming  stanz- 

-A,  let  me  hail  the  sweet  Bosquet  de  Flore 

In  different  rhyme.     Oh  may  it  more  and  more 

Endure,  and  sweet  and  sweeter  grow  : — a  store 

Of  souvenirs  of  Talence  that  o'er  and  o'er 

We  may  recur  to  from  whatever  shore 

Shall  be  decreed  to  us ;  and  ne'er  deplore 

Our  short  stay  here  nor  think  it  was  a  bore. 

When  love  and  piety  are  at  the  core 

Of  every  heart,  all  earth  becomes  a  floor 

From  which  the  buoyant  spirit  learns  to  soar 

Aloft  and  knock  at  heaven's  half-open'd  door. 

In  after  years,  when  these  are  '  days  of  yore,' 

So  let  us  deem  of  them  :  and 

" '  Heretofore,' 
Thus  let  us  say,  '  how  pleasantly  they  wore 
Away,  those  weeks  at  Talence  !    Goodness,  lore, 
And  love  were  ours.     Those  winter  mornings  hoar 
On  which  we  rose  and  hasten'd  to  implore 
God's  grace  at  church,  are  sweet  to  ponder  o'er  : — 
Though  some  were  left  to  lie  abed  and  snore. 
Oft  the  high  road  was  red  with  swinish  gore. 
Two  pigs  were  kill'd — sometimes  they  slaughter'd  four  : 
Dogs  lapp'd  and  for  the  offal  fought  and  tore, 
While  men  look'd  on,  stuffd  sausages  and  swore. 
At  Talence,  too,  began  the  '  Bosquet  de  Flore,' 
In  which  we  each  put  forth  our  little  store 
Of  wit.'. ..Dear  Louie  !   I  can  write  no  more. 
May  the  good  God  thou  truly  dost  adore 
Thee  prosper — thee  and  thine  for  evermore. 


30  THE    WABASH. 

Forgive  these  trifles.  Life  would  be  very 
dry  without  them  :  and  it  is  the  purport  of 
these  pages  to  describe,  not  only  the  travels, 
but  the  thoughts,  the  feelings,  the  impressions 
of  a  family  under  somewhat  novel  and  trying 
circumstances. 

How  the  rain  poured  down  on  the  morning 
of  the  2nd  May  1851,  when  we  left  our  pretty 
villa  of  Mr.  Crespi  and  drove  through  Bordeaux 
to  the  port !  A  guard  from  the  Octroi  at  Ta- 
lence  accompanied  us  through  the  town,  lest  we 
should  open  any  of  our  boxes  and  scatter  eat- 
ables or  drinkables  by  the  way  that  had  not 
paid  the  proper  tax.  Never  have  I  seen  a  ves- 
sel more  crowded  than  was  the  little  steamer 
on  which  we  embarked  on  the  broad  Gironde. 
Some  two  hundred  people  were  choking  in  a 
little  cabin  below  deck  capable  of  holding  ten 
in  such  comfort  as  cabins  below  deck  afford  : 
but  I  had  not  seen  the  river  steamers  of  the 
new  world,  and  did  not  then  grumble  as  me- 
mory does  now.  It  continued  to  rain;  and,  after 
two  or  three  hours,  we  landed  at  Blaye. 

There  began  the  post  road  through  la  Ven- 
dee to  Saumur  on  the  Loire,  where  it  met  the 


CHAP.   I. BORDEAUX.  31 

railroad  to  Paris.  There  was  nothing  inter- 
esting in  this  road.  Few  parts  of  France  look 
attractive  to  the  passing  traveller.  Saintes, 
on  the  Charante,  was  a  pretty- looking  place  ; 
and  they  gave  us  an  excellent  dinner  there 
for  about  the  same  money  they  had  charged 
at  the  pot-house  at  Blaye  for  an  infamous 
breakfast :  but  these  pages  are  not  to  tell  of 
European  travel,  and  I  speed  me  onwards.  I 
would  only  pause  to  recommend  the  Hotel  du 
Faisan  at  Tours,  and  the  Hotel  d'Orleans  at 
the  latter  place.  We  returned  a  second  time 
to  the  Hotel  de  l'Amiraute  at  Havre. 

The  English  Consul  at  Havre  was  a  very 
gentlemanly  man — rather  above  his  place,  as 
most  of  our  employes  are.  The  one  of  Bor- 
deaux had  been  absent  all  the  winter,  and  his 
substitute  could  only  charge  heavy  fees  for  the 
deeds  he  witnessed  for  me.  Our  Consul  at 
Havre  did  not  know  what  the  fees  were  ;  but 
his  clerk  did,  who  sat  in  the  ante-room.  Said 
clerk  also  insisted  upon  viseing  my  passport, 
and  making  me  pay  for  his  doing  so  ;  but  the 
police  assured  me  that  such  vise  was  unneces- 
sary.    I  called  on  the  American  Consul,  also, 


32  THE    WABASH. 

at  Havre  :  he  kept  three  or  four  clerks  ;  but 
he  sat  in  the  same  room  with  them,  and  came 
forward  and  gave  me,  gratis,  all  the  informa- 
tion I  needed,  with  the  willing  prevenance  that 
I  have  found  more  amongst  American  than 
any  other  employes.  Much  of  national  feeling 
and  national  manners  may  be  learnt  in  the 
bureaux,  whether  of  government  or  railway  or 
other  companies,  in  the  different  States  :  and 
those  who  have  travelled  enough  to  under- 
stand manner  and  intonation  of  the  voice  as 
well  as  spoken  words,  will  probably  agree 
with  me  that  the  French  of  every  class,  in 
and  out  of  office,  used  to  evince  to  us  more 
incivility  and  ill-manners  than  any  other  peo- 
ple in  the  world.  They  could  not  overcome 
their  national  antipathies.  We  shall  see  what 
will  be  the  effect  of  our  anti-Russian  alliance. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  KATE  HUNTER. 

The  lapdog — The  parrot — The  dormouse — The  dream — Search 
for  a  vessel — The  outward  bound — Torbay — Life  on  board — 
Young  Go-a-head — Captain  Parsons — Icebergs — Mysterious 
causes  of  our  mode  of  travel — Our  yacht — Accidents — The 
pilot — Our  invalid. 

My  eldest  son,  who  had  gone  from  Talence  to 
England  to  settle  some  business  for  us,  could 
not  return  in  time  to  embark  with  us.  Only 
eleven  of  our  children,  therefore,  were  to  ac- 
company us.  But  we  had  as  many  other  pets 
as  Don  Juan  carried  with  him  from  St.  Peters- 
burg. We  had  a  lapdog — no  great  beauty  in 
England,  being  a  cross  between  a  yellow  cur 
and  a  long-haired  spaniel :  but  as  it  was  small 
and  retained  the  long  hair  of  one  of  its  pro- 
genitors united  to  the  dun  colour  of  the  other, 
it  was  admired  by  many  people.  We  had  six 
canary  birds  in  a  cage — having  given  two,  of  a 
brood  hatched  at  Talence,  to  our  cure  and  two 
to  our  landlord  there.     We  had  an   African 


34  THE    WABASH. 

parrot  in  a  tin  travelling  box,  which  I  had 
often  joyed  to  see  the  French  porters,  igno- 
rant of  its  contents,  bury  under  piles  of  bag- 
gage ;  but  the  malicious  beast  would  not  be 
smothered,  and  generally  uttered  some  scream 
which  startled  and  caused  them  to  release  it 
from  its  confinement.  I  own  that  I  had  done 
all  I  could  to  cause  its  neck  to  be  twisted : 
with  the  chance  of  going  into  Italy,  I  had 
taught  it  to  cry  "  a  bas  l'Autriche !"  "  Vive 
Napoleon !"  and  I  now  laboured  to  make  it 
say  "  General  Cass — hurra!"  I  fondly  hoped 
that  some  or  other  contending  faction  would 
silence  it  for  me :  but  there  I  now  still  hear  it 
below  stairs — whistling,  whooping,  and  crying 
"  Vive  Napoleon !"  as  if  triumphant  over  me 
and  all  its  own  adventures.  We  had  a  dor- 
mouse also,  with  a  hairless  tail :  for  said  dor- 
mouse had  a  habit  of  escaping  from  its  box ; 
and  being  once  caught  by  the  tail,  it  had 
slipped  its  skin,  which  had  remained,  like  a 
scabbard,  in  my  wife's  fingers.  She  had 
dreamed  a  dream  about  that  dormouse,  which 
I  submit  to  the  judgment  of  those  curious  in 
such  matters.     She  had  dreamed,  some  three 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      35 

years  before,  when  this  dormouse,  who  was 
called  "  Sailor",  had  a  fellow-pet,  called  "  Sol- 
dier", that  it  said  to  her,  "  Oh,  Mistress,  Sailor 
has  beaten  me  so  cruelly  that  I  have  been 
obliged  to  run  away  and  hide  in  your  box  of 
worsted  work."  Of  course,  when  the  maid 
came  in  the  morning  to  wake  her  mistress,  she 
told  her  to  fetch  instantly  the  dormouse  cage. 
The  cage  was  open :  a  small  spot  of  blood 
stained  its  door — "  Sailor"  alone  was  there, 
and  poor  injured  "  Soldier"  was  missing. 

"  Fetch  the  box  of  worsted  !" 

In  vain  it  was  tumbled  over :  no  dormouse 
was  to  be  found.  Who  would  be  so  silly  as  to 
believe  in  dreams ! 

Three  weeks  afterwards,  a  doll's  cap  was 
wanted:  the  worsted  box  was  again  hunted 
over ;  and  there,  in  a  netted  cap,  used  as  a  bag 
for  loose  bits  of  worsted,  was  found  coiled  up 
the  missing  dormouse.  He  was  near  starved, 
and  had  eaten  half  the  worsted  around  him. 
All  this  is  a  fact.  Whether  it  afterwards  died 
in  consequence  of  Sailor's  cruelty,  its  own  es- 
capade or  starvation,  matters  not :  but  I  am 
happy  in  being  able  to  record,  also  as  a  fact, 


36  THE    WABASH. 

that,  at  Havre,  I  had  only  to  take  a  passage 
for  one  dormouse  to  America ! 

We  walked  out  along  the  quays.  They  were 
crowded  with  shipping.  Advertisements  swang 
to  many  of  them  and  declared  whither  they 
would  sail  and  when.  We  came  to  a  fine  ves- 
sel on  which  was  a  similar  notice  that  it  would 
leave  Havre  for  New  York  on  the  following 
day.  We  clomb  the  staging  and  went  on 
board. 

Now  as  I  had  never  been  on  board  any  vessel 
before,  excepting  the  two  in  the  harbour  of 
Bordeaux  and  the  channel  packets,  from  the 
decks  of  which  I  had  peered  down  into  the 
cabin  beneath  without  ever  venturing  to  de- 
scend the  ladder  into  the  close  and  dingy  at- 
mosphere below,  I  was  no  less  delighted  than 
surprised  by  the  arrangements  of  the  Kate 
Hunter.  There  was,  indeed,  a  ladder  leading 
to  the  usual  dingy  dungeons  below  deck :  but 
the  smart  sailor  who  had  received  us,  led  us 
past  this  into  a  spacious  saloon  built  upon  the 
deck  itself,  and  which  received  plenty  of  light 
and  air  from  wide  skylights  in  the  ceiling. 
On  each  side  of  this  saloon,  were  five  cabins, 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      37 

containing  two  beds  each,  and  which  were 
lighted  by  portholes  and  windows  in  the  side 
of  the  building,  All  were  perfectly  clean  and 
handsomely  fitted  up  with  gilding  and  paint- 
ing. From  the  saloon  into  which  all  these 
opened,  two  staircases  led  us  up  to  the  roof 
above  them  or  quarter-deck — a  large  open 
space  of  the  size  of  half  the  vessel,  from  one 
end  of  which  we  looked  down  upon  the  main 
deck,  sailors,  and  pitch  and  tar,  about  fourteen 
feet  below  us. 

"  When  do  you  sail]" 

"  To-morrow." 

"  What  passengers  have  you  ?" 

"  Three  hundred  and  sixty  German  emi- 
grants." 

"  What  cabin  passengers  ?" 

"  Not  one." 

"  Where  is  the  captain  V 

"  On  shore.  I  say,  Mr.  Stubbs,"  he  called 
to  one  on  deck,  "  will  you  have  the  goodness 
just  to  step  across  the  quay  to  the  office,  and 
ask  Captain  Parsons  to  come  on  board." 

My  wife  and  I  looked  at  one  another  as 
much  as  to  say  "  this  will  do." 


38  THE    WABASH. 

A  tall,  sensible-looking  man,  of  about  fifty 
years  of  age,  dressed  in  black,  came  on  board. 

"  Captain  Parsons,  you  sail  to-morrow.  We 
cannot  be  ready  until  the  afternoon  of  the  fol- 
lowing day." 

He  did  not  answer  us  as  frankly  as  the 
master  of  the  American  vessel  at  Bordeaux 
had  done ;  but  still  he  gave  us  to  understand 
that  a  captain  could  always  delay  his  departure 
for  some  hours  if  it  were  made  worth  his 
while  to  do  so. 

"  We  should  want  all  your  saloon,  and  all 
your  state  cabins." 

This,  indeed,  looked  serious.  We  began 
our  calculations  on  either  side,  and  the  terms 
were  soon  agreed  to  :  provided  always  that  my 
eleven  children  were  what  I  represented  them 
to  be.  Captain  Parsons  begged  me  to  excuse 
his  American  caution,  but  said  that  he  had 
once  known  the  captain  of  a  vessel  engage  to 
carry  and  feed  an  emigrant  man  and  wife  and 
their  children,  the  latter  of  whom  turned  out 
to  be  as  big  and  about  as  old  as  their  parents. 
We  appointed  him  to  call  upon  us  at  teatime 
that    evening.      He    did    so,    and    not    being 


CHAP.  II. —  THE  KATE  HUNTER.      39 

frightened  by  the  age,  size,  or  masculine  looks 
of  any  of  our  sons  or  daughters,  completed  the 
provisional  agreement  we  had  made. 

And  now  much  business  was  to  be  done, 
and  but  one  day  and  a-half  remained  to  do  it 
in.  Letters  were  to  be  written;  codicils  to  wills 
and  powers  of  attorney  were  to  be  signed  ; 
money  was  to  be  had  from  the  bank  ;  and 
little  comforts  for  the  sea  voyage  were  to  be 
purchased ;  physic  for  the  medicine  chest ; 
seed  for  the  birds  ;  nuts  for  the  dormouse. 
We  worked  hard  that  day  and  the  following 
morning.  A  kindly  priest  had  volunteered  to 
offer  up  the  Holy  Sacrifice  for  our  prosperous 
voyage,  and  we  had  all  received  the  Blessed 
Sacrament,  and  committed  ourselves  to  the 
protection  of  Heaven :  then  at  midday  on 
Wednesday,  the  7th  of  May,  we  cheerfully 
stepped  on  board  the  Kate  Hunter  from  the 
outermost  pier  against  which  it  had  been 
towed  to  receive  us.  One  of  our  daughters, 
her  arm  encumbered  with  a  basket,  that  ne- 
cessary appendage  to  all  women  travelling, 
staggered  as  she  mounted  the  inclined  plane 
up  the  side  of  the  vessel : — 


40  THE    WABASH. 

"  Don't  be  afraid  now,  miss,"  said  the  se- 
cond mate,  who  assisted  her :  "  if  you  were  to 
fall  into  the  sea,  I'd  bet  a  dollar  we'd  soon 
pick  you  out  again." 

"  Thank  you,  but  I  would  rather  not  try 
the  experiment,"  she  replied,  when  safe  on 
board. 

Another  of  ^our  children  carried  the  cage  of 
canaries,  and,  the  door  not  being  properly 
fastened,  out  flew  the  mother  of  the  brood, 
and  winged  her  way  back  to  the  streets  of  the 
town.  Some  of  us  were  very  sentimental  about 
this  separation  of  the  parent  bird  from  her 
young  at  the  moment  of  their  departure.  All, 
however,  were  soon  busied  in  arranging  their 
cabins,  carpet-bags,  and  portmanteaus,  which 
I  advised  them  to  do  while  the  ship  lay  in  still 
water.  Then  the  Captain  came  on  board :  and 
then  we  all  went  on  deck,  and  saw  our  vessel 
towed  by  a  steamer  past  the  wharves  crowded 
with  people,  many  of  whom  cheered  the  emi- 
grants as  they  passed.  Those  poor  emigrants ! 
— how  different  were  the  expressions  of  their 
countenances !  Regret,  terror,  and  hope  strug- 
gled for  the  mastery.      Many  mothers  with 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      41 

young  children  were  there,  evidently  going  to 
rejoin  their  husbands,  and  so  nerved  to  the 
trial  they  anticipated  on  their  crowded  deck. 
Some  fine  lads  exuberant  with  joy,  triumphed 
in  the  anticipation  of  the  future.  There  were 
many  fathers  of  families  with  wives  and  chil- 
dren, anxious  and  doubtful,  like  myself,  of  the 
prudence  of  the  course  they  were  taking,  and 
fearful  of  the  dangers  into  which  they  might 
be  leading  those  who  confided  in  their  judg- 
ment. But  it  was  my  wife's  birthday  ;  and 
we  all  stood  about  her  and  were  resolved  that 
it  should  open  to  us  upon  a  bright  future. 
The  children  clustered  together  on  deck  and 
sang  appropriate  songs, — "  A  health  to  the 
outward  bound",  or  "The  sea,  the  open  sea". 
It  was  well  they  should  sing  while  they  could. 
The  Captain  went  coolly  and  methodically 
to  work.  He  stood  on  the  lower  deck ;  and 
calling  over  the  names  of  all  the  passengers, 
made  them  pass  before  him.  Some  objected  : 
but  his  quiet  air  of  determination  quickly 
showed  them  that  his  will  was  to  be  obeyed. 
At  last,  from  the  lower  decks,  they  turned  out 
one  whose  name  was  not  on  the  register :    a 


42  THE    WABASH. 

stowaway:  of  course,  there  was  much  threaten- 
ing of  what  should  be  done  to  him ;  but  no 
one  would  subscribe  to  pay  his  passage.  He 
was  placed  on  a  stool,  with  his  hands  tied  to 
the  rigging  over  his  head,  for  three  hours,  and 
was  then  turned  adrift  amongst  the  crew  to 
work  his  way  oat.  Our  crew  was,  indeed,  a 
motley  set:  Germans,  Norwegians,  Dutch, 
Irish,  and  English :  sixteen  only  in  number  to 
work  a  vessel  of  upwards  of  one  thousand 
tons.  Not  an  American  was  amongst  them 
except  the  Captain,  his  mate,  Mr.  Burdock, 
and  his  second  mate,  Mr.  Hobbs :  and  I  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  Americans  very  rarely 
choose  the  sea  as  a  profession  :  never,  indeed, 
unless  they  have  the  sure  prospect  of  rising 
shortly  to  the  command  of  a  vessel.  Our  se- 
cond mate,  of  whom  we  heard  nothing  except 
that  he  grumbled  to  my  children  that  the 
Captain  would  never  carry  sail  enough  to  go 
a-heacl, — our  second  mate,  "  Young  Go-a- 
head ",  as  we  called  him,  was  only  nineteen, 
but  would  doubtless,  I  was  told,  be  intrusted 
with  the  command  of  a  vessel  in  three  years 
more. 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTEK.      43 

Unless  he  be  calmed  down,  I  would  rather 
not  sail  in  her. 

It  was  wonderful  to  see  how  this  motley 
crew  of  different  nations,  and  of  whom  many 
did  not  speak  the  language  of  the  others  nor 
of  the  Captain,  was  soon  brought  into  order, 
taught  to  understand  the  commands  given,  and 
to  work  together.  We  were  short-handed,  it 
is  true ;  but  the  bolts  used  in  American  rigging 
are  more  easily  worked  than  those  of  English 
vessels  ;  and  we  could  always,  in  case  of  need, 
find  willing  help  from  among  the  able-bodied 
emigrants  below. 

Our  songs  were  interrupted  by  dinner  and 
by  unpleasant  sensations  ;  somewhat  sadly,  we 
saw  the  sun  set ;  and  nerving  myself  not  to 
repent  our  undertaking  nor  to  dread  the  fu- 
ture, I  betook  myself,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  to  my  berth ;  and  went  to  sleep,  wondering 
how  we  should  get  through  a  whole  month  in 
such  quarters. 

We  were  awakened  next  morning  by  the 
clear  sound  of  the  ship's  clock  striking  two 
bells.  Be  it  known  to  landsmen,  that  the  clay 
of  twenty-four  hours  is,  on  board  ship,  broken 


44  THE    WABASH. 

up  into  three  divisions  of  eight  hours  each, 
beginning  at  midday :  that  the  clock  is  regu- 
larly altered  by  the  sun :  but  that  the  bells 
alone  give  the  recognised  time,  and  that  those 
cannot  be  struck  without  superior  orders.  I 
rose,  wrashed  and  dressed,  as  well  as  I  could  in 
a  little  space  about  nine  feet  long  and  six  feet 
broad,  where  ewers  and  looking-glasses  were 
fixed  in  such  way  only  as  to  take  up  least 
space, — the  floor  gently  undulating  beneath 
me,  and  the  walls  of  the  room  slowly  inclining 
from  one  to  the  other  side.  We  all  met  on 
deck :  the  sun  was  shining  brightly :  the  deep 
blue  sea  was  spangled  by  its  rays :  many  fish- 
ing boats,  with  white  or  brick-coloured  sails, 
were  around  us :  green  hills  rose  in  the  dis- 
tance on  our  right.  We  were  becalmed  near 
Tor  Bay. 

Tor  Bay — Torquay  !  what  pleasant  hours  I 
had  spent  beside  that  pretty  shore  !  What 
hopes,  what  happiness,  had  sprung  to  me 
from  that  calm  retreat !  And  here  we  lie  and 
look  at  it ;  and  the  fishing  boats  supply  us 
with  fish;  and  the  vessel  sways  from  side  to 
side  on  the  sunny  waves  for  about  eight  and 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.       45 

forty  hours.  But  then — -up  arose  the  breeze, 
and  away  we  went,  westward !  There  was  not 
much  wind,  but  the  effect  was  disagreeable 
enough  ;  and  we  had  not  much  appetite  when 
we  were  called  down  to  dinner. 

"  But  what  is  this  on  the  table  ?"  I  asked. 

"  A  spider." 

Dear  landsman,  I  knew  no  more  than  you 
what  "  a  spider"  meant  on  a  dinner-table  on 
board  ship :  and  I  lifted  up  the  table  cloth  to 
examine  the  wooden  framework  which  covered 
it  all,  and  divided  it  into  little  boxes,  about 
three  inches  deep  and  twelve  or  more  inches 
wide  or  long,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
plates  or  dishes  that  were  placed  upon  it.  We 
all  admired  the  contrivance;  and  still  more  so 
when  the  ship  leant  on  one  side,  and  some 
plates,  that  had  been  set  down  at  the  other 
end  of  the  table  beyond  the  "spider",  slid 
upon  the  floor,  while  our  own  dishes  were 
firmly  fixed  in  its  fangs. 

Captain  Parsons  had  engaged  to  supply  us 
with  all  proper  provisions  as  state-room  pas- 
sengers ;  but  he  had  so  short  a  time  to  lay  in 
stores,  that  I  was  somewhat  anxious  as  to  how 


46  THE    WABASH. 

we  should  fare.  My  wife  had  requested  him 
to  take  on  board  a  goat  to  supply  us  with 
fresh  milk,  which  we  all  found  more  agree- 
able than  the  so-called  preserved  milk  in  tins. 
The  preserved  meats,  however,  which  he  took 
for  us — the  salmon,  sardines  and  tunny  in  oil 
— were  excellent.  Of  poultry  there  was  a 
good  store,  though  the  ducks  pined  for  want 
of  water  to  swim  in.  Fresh  butcher's  meat 
of  course  disappeared  after  the  first  few  days, 
and  the  eggs  were  no  longer  new  laid:  but 
the  broiled  ham  was  plentiful  and  good  ;  and 
by  living  very  sparingly  on  this,  on  currys,  on 
preserved  fish,  with  pickle  and  vinegar,  I 
managed  to  keep  off  all  positive  sea  sickness, 
and  suffered  only  from  the  nasty  nausea  which 
I  imagine  to  be  inseparable  from  salt  water. 
Then  we  had  hot  rolls,  half  baked  according 
to  the  universal  practice  in  America,  and  corn 
bread  in  abundance.  This  latter  was  not  un- 
pleasant, but  too  sweet  for  my  palate.  I  was 
glad  to  see  that  my  children  liked  it.  Our 
dinners  were  always  at  two  o'clock :  our  break- 
fasts we  persuaded  our  host  to  defer  till  near 
eight   o'clock :    and  our  teas  were  at  seven. 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      47 

Fried  and  cold  ham,  and  lots  of  omelets ;  with 
hot  rolls  and  corn  bread  ;  with  tea  and  coffee 
and  fried  potatoes,  made  these  meals  ample 
for  those  even  of  our  party  to  whom  the  sea 
breeze  gave  most  appetite.  The  Captain  sat 
at  the  head  of  the  table :  his  first  mate  next 
to  our  boys  at  the  bottom  ;  and  as  yet  unused 
to  the  American  plan  of  bolting  their  food, 
we  marvelled  how  the  latter  could  get  through 
his  meals  and  be  again  on  deck  before  we  had 
well  nigh  begun  ours.  The  Captain's  evident 
wish  to  conform  to  our  ways,  could  not  make 
even  him  sit  what  we  thought  a  decent  time 
at  the  board:  and  he  always  stole  away  on 
deck  and  smoked  his  one  segar  after  every 
meal  before  we  were  ready  to  rejoin  him. 

My  poor  wife,  although  the  only  one  of  the 
party  who  had  been  much  at  sea,  and  gene- 
rally without  sickness,  suffered  greatly  on  this 
voyage.  She  struggled  against  it  at  first,  but 
then  fairly  gave  in,  and  spent  most  of  her 
mornings  in  her  state  room.  The  children, 
according  to  their  different  constitutions  and 
the  thoughtlessness  or  energy  of  their  cha- 
racters,  suffered  or  escaped  all  ailing.     The 


48  THE    WABASH. 

younger  ones  generally  disregarded  the  nui- 
sance :  they  eat,  and  were  ill,  and  got  well 
again,  and  played  about  and  enjoyed  the  no- 
velty of  the  scenes  around  them.  Our  invalid 
suffered  least  from  sea  sickness,  and  gained 
strength  visibly  in  the  fresh  salt  breeze.  She 
was  always  up  early  on  deck  before  breakfast, 
and  soon  acquired  a  tolerable  footing  on  its 
heaving  floor.  She  enjoyed  carrying  cups  of 
tea  or  coffee  to  her  mother's  room,  and  show- 
ing that  she  could  do  so  without  spilling  their 
contents,  when,  as  she  said,  the  ship  "  raised 
her  bows  to  allow  the  wave  to  pass  under 
her  without  splashing  her  face,  or  figure-head". 
Our  eldest  daughter  looked  after  and  tended 
all  in  their  ailings  and  wants :  our  little  Isabel 
amused  the  youngest  children,  and  constituted 
herself  their  day  nurse :  the  one  and  the  other 
were  often  sick ;  but  silently  rushed  away  and 
eased  themselves,  and  then  returned  to  their 
self-appointed  duties  with  good  nature  and 
smiles  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  boys 
ran  wild,  and  pretended  that  they  were  learn- 
ing navigation.  At  nightfall,  we  all  collected 
round  the   table  in   the   saloon,   and  studied 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      49 

together  the  American  books  or  atlases  be- 
longing to  the  Captain, — in  which,  to  our  sur- 
prise, America  was  described  first  in  endless 
district  and  county  maps,  while  Europe  was 
left  to  the  end  of  the  volume,  and  dismissed 
with  scarcely  one  for  each  kingdom  : — we 
studied  the  maps,  and  fancied  a  home  for  our 
boys  in  the  different  states,  and  sketched  and 
discussed  plans  of  houses  to  be  built  for  each, 
with  one  in  the  centre  of  the  location  for  us 
all  to  inhabit  when  we  came  to  visit  them, 
and  which  should  always  be  transmitted  to 
the  head  of  the  colony.  Vain  dreams,  but 
pleasant !  Where  are  now  all  those  who 
strove  for  the  unbuilt  room  which  imagina- 
tion allotted  to  each !  Their  lot  has  been 
already  otherwise  cast.  But  never  were  more 
cheerful  castles  in  the  air  more  innocently 
built :  and  never  did  young  hearts  anticipate 
the  gaieties  and  crowds  of  a  festive  capital,  as 
ours  looked  forward  to  a  patriarchal  home  in 
the  wildernesses  of  the  back  woods  ! 

On — on  we  went,  pleasantly  and  rapidly  too. 
We  were  delighted  with  the  behaviour  of  our 
vessel,  which,  in  a  few  hours,  overtook  and 


50  THE  WABASH. 

passed  everything  that  we  came  in  sight  of. 
My  wife  insisted  that  the  masts  were  too  tall, 
and  that  she  must  fall  over  on  one  side  :  and 
was  scarcely  reconciled  by  Captain  Parsons' 
assurance  that  American  ships  were  so  built 
for  greater  speed  than  Europeans  could  at- 
tain. Young  "Go-a-head",  indeed,  still  grum- 
bled to  my  boys  that  we  did  not  carry  sail 
enough :  but  the  captain  was  a  prudent  man ; 
and  greater  watchfulness  could  not  be  than  he 
evinced  in  the  sailing  of  his  boat.  I  do  not 
believe  that,  while  the  sun  was  above  the  ho- 
rizon, he  was  ever  more  than  half  an  hour 
from  the  wheel ;  and  when  the  wind  was  at 
all  high,  he  never  left  it,  even  during  the 
night. 

For  the  wind  was  high  sometimes ;  and  it 
was  with  an  unpleasant  sensation  that  we  all 
woke  one  morning  and  found  ourselves  stand- 
ing up  in  bed,  either  on  our  feet  or  on  our 
heads,  or  lying  across  the  portholes  in  the  side, 
or  rolling  on  the  floors  of  our  state-rooms  ; 
while  towels  and  looking-glasses,  that  we  had 
left  hanging  in  all  the  proprieties  of  matter 
well    taught  to  obey  the  centre  of  gravity, 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      51 

seemed  flying  off  in  an  eccentric  course,  their 
iower  extremities  far-stretching  from  the  wall. 
It  was  no  easy  matter  to  dress  and  shave  that 
morning.  When  I  had  accomplished  the  task, 
and  had  been  released  from  my  state-room, 
against  the  door  of  which  something  had  rolled, 
I  sadly  wanted  sea-legs  to  cross  the  saloon  and 
go  on  deck.  I  had  got  half  way  across,  and  was 
greeting  our  captain  as  he  entered  from  the  slips 
on  the  opposite  side,  when  the  ship  gave  what,  I 
suppose,  was  an  unusual  lurch ;  for  not  only 
was  I  hurled  back  to  my  cabin-door,  but  the 
captain  himself  staggered,  and  was  thrown 
somewhat  roughly  beside  me.  I  was  told, 
however,  that  this  was  no  storm,  but  only  a 
stiff  breeze  that  was  carrying  us  on  favour- 
ably. And  on,  I  suppose,  we  went,  and  off 
too  :  as  some  of  my  children,  who  were  lying 
on  sofas  round  the  saloon,  occasionally  found 
themselves  gently  deposited  on  the  floor  and 
rolling  under  the  breakfast  table.  Yet  even 
this  brought  its  fun  ;  for  my  third  boy,  Frank, 
soon  discovered  that  tea,  spilt  from  his  own 
cup,  could  be  made  to  run  across  the  sloping 
table  into  the  lap  of  his  sister  opposite ;  and. 


52  THE  WABASH. 

of  course,  did  not  neglect  this  opportunity  of 
improving  his  knowledge  of  hydraulics. 

"  When  I  went  on  deck,"  writes  our  inva- 
lid, "  I  wras  struck  with  the  majestic,  perhaps 
awful  grandeur  of  the  sight.  There  was  not 
another  ship  to  be  seen,  and  we  were  alone  on 
the  wide  Atlantic,  dashing  through  the  waves. 
The  sky  was  dark  and  lowering,  and  the  wind 
whistled  through  the  masts  and  spars." 

Such  was  the  impression,  produced  on  the 
mind  of  a  young  girl  of  sixteen,  by  a  stiff 
breeze  at  sea ;  and  such,  I  believe,  must  be  its 
effect  on  all : — the  loneliness  of  the  ship  we 
are  on  and  the  immensity  of  the  ocean,  con- 
trast predominantly.  But  the  breeze  subsided 
and  was  followed  by  a  calm  ;  and  the  Kate 
Hunter  rolled  disagreeably  ;  and  then  a  fair 
breeze  sprang  up ;  and  then  it  changed  and 
carried  us  rather  too  far  to  the  north  :  and 
then  we,  who  were  sailing  on  the  great  circle, 
found  the  air  grow  chill  for  the  month  of 
May  ;  and  one  morning  when  it  was  getting 
rather  unpleasantly  cold,  they  called  down  to 
us  that  three  large  icebergs  were  in  sight. 
The   sick  forgot  their  sickness,  and  speedily 


CHAP.   II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.  .53 

all  were  on  deck.  How  steadily  they  floated 
by  us,  those  great  mounds  of  snow  !  Not 
"  mountains  high",  as  imagination  fancies  ice- 
bergs to  be ;  but  like  small  islands  of  snow- 
covered  ice,  large  enough  to  whelm  the  largest 
vessel  with  which  they  should  come  in  con- 
tact, they  seemed  to  go  on  their  way  rejoicing 
towards  the  sun — rollicking  and  turning  from 
side  to  side  as  one  portion  melted  away  in  its 
rays  and  another  sank  deeper  into  the  water  : 
— and  be  it  remembered  that  the  part  covered 
by  the  water  is  always  two-thirds  larger  than 
that  which  appears  above.  At  one  time,  we 
had  about  a  score  of  these  in  sight,  and  not 
far  from  us.  A  large  bird  with  black  wings 
visited  us  from  one  of  these  islands,  and  ho- 
vered around  our  spars.  We  thought  of  the 
albatross  of  the  "  Ancient  Mariner",  and  bid 
heaven  speed  it  on  its  way :  but  we  were  not 
sorry  to  incline  again  to  the  south,  and  to  pass 
out  of  the  course  of  such  fearful  neighbours. 

And  so  our  days  went  by,  as  pleasantly  as  days 
can  go  by  on  board  ship.  Had  the  Kate  Hunter 
been  a  private  yacht,  she  could  not  have  sailed 
better,  nor  have  been  better  manned  and  kept ; 


54  THE  WABASH. 

nor  could  we  have  had  it  more  entirely  to  our- 
selves. The  poor  emigrants  never,  of  course, 
interfered  with  our  saloon  or  deck,  and  caused 
us  no  annoyance  whatever.  The  mate  told  us 
to  congratulate  ourselves  that  they  were  Ger- 
mans rather  than  Irish,  or  that  we  might  have 
been  sensible  of  their  vicinity.  Irishmen — 
Irishwomen !  why  will  you  compel  a  well- 
wisher  to  you  and  your  country  to  hear  such 
a  reproach  against  you  from  those  who  had  no 
ill-will  to  you  or  yours  %  It  was  distressing  to 
be  confined  so  long  with  upwards  of  three  hun- 
dred people,  in  whose  histories  and  hopes  one 
could  have  felt  interest  and  sympathy,  without 
holding  any  communication  with  them  ;  but  I 
could  not  find  out  that  any  one  of  them  spoke 
any  language  but  their  own ;  and  as  they  all 
had  their  own  bedding  and  provisions  and 
cooked  their  own  meals,  little  need  of  inter- 
course was  there  between  them  and  the  crew 
of  the  vessel.  All  that  Captain  Parsons  knew 
of  them  was,  that  they  had  been  brought  from 
Germany  to  Havre  by  an  Emigration  Com- 
pany, who  had  there  chartered  his  vessel  to 
take  them  to  New  York. 


CHAP.  II, THE  KATE  HUNTER.      55 

Sunday  and  other  Sundays  came  round  ; 
and  we  used  to  stand  in  groups  on  the  deck  or 
hang  over  its  rails  as  we  read  the  Divine  Ser- 
vice for  the  day,  while  the  captain  walked  his 
quarter-deck  on  the  other  side  and  would  not 
even  gambol  with  the  lapdog  until  the  books 
were  closed :  but  he  soon  found  out  that  the 
afternoon  service  was  less  rigidly  formal,  and 
as  my  children  clustered  together  and  sang 
the  Vesper  psalms  to  the  old  church  music, 
he  would  stand  near  and  listen  with  a  pleased 
expression,  or  trip  away  with  Tiny  snapping 
at  his  heels,  while  he  dragged  our  youngest 
two-year-old  boy  by  the  hand  beside  him  and 
played  with  him  sotto  voce.  He  was  a  kind- 
hearted  man,  well  informed,  with  good  man- 
ners and  obliging  ;  and  evidently  felt  much 
interest  in  our  large  family  going  so  far  under 
such  unusual  circumstances.  For  English 
gentlemen's  sons  do  not  often  go  out  to  settle 
in  the  United  States ;  and  when  they  do,  they 
are  not  accompanied  by  father  and  mother  and 
sisters  and  young  children,  all  speeding  from 
the  luxuries  of  wealth  and  social  position,  that 
they  may  "rough  it"  unknown  in  the  sailing 


56  THE  WABASH. 

vessel  or  the  wilderness ;  and  may  so  become 
acquainted  with  the  future  home  of  their  sons 
and  brothers.  There  were  also  other  mys- 
terious circumstances  about  the  party  which 
Captain  Parsons  could  never  fathom,  and  which 
must  yet  remain  unrevealed  to  the  reader. 

A  sea  voyage  is  said  to  be  tedious ;  but  to  a 
family  afloat  for  the  first  time,  it  can  never  be 
without  its  excitement  and  incidents.  How 
interesting  it  was  to  hear  captain  and  mate, 
with  spyglass  in  hand,  speculate  upon  the  iden- 
tity of  some  vessel  miles  ahead — certain  only 
that  she  was  European  because  of  the  heaviness 
of  her  build  and  rigging — and  break  off  the 
useless  speculation,  saying,  "  It  matters  not : 
we  shall  pass  her  shortly  !" — What  pleasure  it 
was  then  to  feel  that  we  were  parties  inte- 
rested in  the  character  of  our  pretty  Kate 
Hunter,  and  to  watch  her  stealing  along  the 
waters  and  gaining — gaining,  till,  in  three 
hours,  we  passed  the  other,  and  recognised  her 
as  one  that  had  left  Havre  a  fortnight  before 
ourselves !  How  amusing  it  was  to  note  the 
gambols  of  the  dolphins  which  sometimes  used 
to  cover  the  sea  like  floating  weeds — to  mark 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      57 

them  heaving  their  round  glittering  backs 
far  above  the  blue  wave,  and  then  roll  and 
tumble  over  as  if  they  enjoyed  the  cool  bathing 
and  the  power  of  swimming  in  it  while  the 
sun  shone  so  bright  over  head  !  How  exciting 
it  was  to  be  startled  from  our  reading  round 
the  saloon  lamp  at  night,  by  one  of  the  boys, 
who  had  escaped  on  deck,  rushing  down  and 
calling  to  us  that  the  sea  was  on  fire !  Then 
how  blissful  to  hang  over  the  sides  of  the  ves- 
sel and  mark  the  bright  phosphoric  gleaming 
in  the  track  of  the  rudder  and  around  and  on 
every  side  on  the  dark  face  of  the  ocean,  when- 
ever a  tiny  wave  toppled  over  its  surging  crest, 
as  if  silver  and  gold  sands  were  flashing  up 
from  beneath !  The  sky  over  head  was  a  deep 
dark  blue,  through  which  millions  of  stars 
brightly  shone.  A  light  wind  was  gently 
swelling  out  the  white  sail  that  hung  from 
our  tapering  spars ;  and  onwards,  almost  with- 
out motion,  onwards  glided  our  wedge-like 
clipper,  as  silent  as  the  stars  above  or  the 
ocean  around ;  onwards  into  those  bright  phos- 
phoric waves  in  front,   and  leaving  a  broad 


58  THE  WABASH. 

track  of  liquid  flashes  over  the  dark  blue  sea 
behind  her. 

And  then,  too,  we  had  our  broils  and  inci' 
dents  of  human  life.  Our  German  steward 
and  the  cook  would  often  disagree ;  and  once 
in  their  quarrels  they  issued  forth  where  we 
could  see  them  on  the  emigrant's  deck ;  and 
the  steward  caught  up  a  carving  knife  and  was 
making  towards  his  foe,  when  out  rushed  Cap- 
tain Parsons,  who  seemed  to  be  everywhere  at 
once,  and  began  silently  to  belabour  the  stew- 
ard with  a  rope  that  he  caught  up.  I  promise 
you  that  the  German  bore  on  his  person  for 
many  days  the  marks  of  that  rope's-ending. 
Flogging  is  forbidden  on  board  the  merchant 
navy  of  the  United  States ;  but  no  captain  he- 
sitates to  inflict  it  when  he  thinks  necessary ; 
and  public  opinion  prevents  the  culprit  from 
declaring  his  own  ill-conduct  by  informing 
against  the  law-breaker. 

One  day,  in  crossing  the  deck,  one  of  our 
emigrants  fell  and  broke  his  leg.  Captain 
Parsons  was  instantly  there,  and  having  caused 
the  poor  man  to  be  laid  upon  a  stretcher,  he 
himself  set  the  limb  and  bound  it  with  splin- 


CHAP.  II. — THE  KATE  HUNTER.      59 

ters  iii  a  manner  which,  as  I  afterwards  heard, 
was  satisfactory  to  the  surgeon  on  shore.  We 
had  no  surgeon  on  board  the  Kate  Hunter ; 
and  subsequent  experience  of  him  of  the  Asia 
steamer  inclines  me  to  exonerate  those  who 
chartered  the  vessel  from  the  omission.  Two 
poor  little  babies  were  born  on  board  about 
this  time ;  I  know  not  if  with  our  captain's 
assistance. 

A  tidy  lass  from  amongst  the  emigrants  acted 
as  our  stewardess,  and  fulfilled  her  duties 
with  alacrity  and  cheerfulness ;  and  the  more 
so  when,  seeing  the  crucifix  in  one  of  our  ca- 
bins, she  exclaimed  "  Catolische !"  and  joyfully 
crossed  herself  to  show  that  there  was  sym- 
pathy of  faith  between  us.  More  than  that, 
our  daughters  could  not  understand ;  but  this 
was  a  bond  of  benevolence. 

But  now  the  colour  of  the  sea  began  to 
change  from  dark  blue  to  green ;  and  a  spar- 
row alighted  upon  our  deck  and  brought  us 
news  of  land.  Poor  little  thing !  it  seemed 
very  faint;  and  when,  with  thoughts  of  the 
"  Ancient  Mariner's"  albatross,  I  divined  that 
it  must  be  thirsty  and  fetched  a  glass  of  wat  r 


60  THE  WABASH. 

and  poured  it  out  on  the  deck,  it  hopped  into 
it  and  sipped  deliciously.  It  was  unable  to 
eat  the  crumbs  we  scattered  until  it  had  taken 
many  a  swallow  of  the  fresh  water.  Hopping 
about  the  rigging,  it  stayed  with  us  some  hours, 
and  then  we  saw  it  no  more. 

We  had  been  becalmed  several  days  since 
we  started;  and,  on  the  31st  of  May,  being 
then  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  from  New 
York,  were  again  lying  idle,  whistling  for  a 
wind.  The  sun  had  risen  very  bright  and 
warm ;  the  sky  was  a  deep  unclouded  blue ; 
many  vessels  were  in  sight  becalmed  like  our- 
selves. The  captain  and  mate  were  very  busy 
with  their  glasses;  and,  at  length,  distinguished 
a  small  open  boat  which  had  put  off  from  the 
side  of  a  vessel  on  the  nature  of  which  they 
had  differed.  This  settled  the  question.  By 
degrees,  we  were  able  to  distinguish  the  six 
rowers  who  urged  the  little  boat  over  the  heav- 
ing sea ;  and  after  three  hours'  hard  work,  it 
came  alongside  of  us  and  a  pilot  climbed  on 
deck. 

Few  words  were  interchanged  between  him 
and  the  captain — men  of  business  both ;  when 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      61 

the  latter  gave  up  the  command  of  his  vessel, 
and  joyfully  went  down  to  his  cabin  to  study 
the  bundles  of  newpapers  which  had  just  been 
handed  to  him.  The  pilot  had  been  for  the 
last  three  days  lying  in  wait  at  this  distance 
from  land,  on  the  look  out  for  some  vessel 
that  he  might  take  into  harbour.  A  hard  life 
that! 

But  we  were  not  yet  at  the  end  of  our 
voyage.  All  that  day,  and  the  next,  we  lay 
becalmed  with  our  pilot  on  board.  Our  feel- 
ings were  divided  between  the  restlessness  of 
ennui  at  being  detained  so  near  shore,  and  the 
fear  lest  we  should  be  carried  into  harbour 
during  the  night,  and  so  lose  the  first  sight  of 
"  the  land  of  the  brave  and  the  free",  as  our 
captain  now — feeling  that,  like  Rob  Roy,  he 
"  stood  upon  his  own  land,  and  his  name  was 
Mac  Gregor" — boastfully  called  it. 

"  Next  morning,"  writes  Lucy,  our  invalid, 
in  the  memoranda  of  her  travels,  from  which 
I  copy,  "  next  morning,  I  woke  with  a  start, 
fearing  that  I  had  slept  too  long.  It  was  four 
o'clock  :  and  looking  out  of  my  little  window, 
I  saw  the  golden  sun  shining  on  land.     My 


62  THE  WABASH. 

first  feeling  was  gratitude  to  God  for  having 
preserved  us  during  this  long  voyage :  and  I 
knelt  down  and  thanked  Him  who  had  watched 
over  us ;  and  whom  I  thought  that  I,  of  all, 
ought  more  particularly  to  thank.  For  when 
I  first  went  on  board  the  Kate  Hunter,  I  had 
felt  that  I  should  either  die  during  the  voyage 
(and  had  prepared  myself  to  die),  or  that  I 
should  get  well  and  strong ;  and  I  now  prayed 
that  I  might  be  of  some  use  to  my  parents, 
who,  I  felt  and  knew,  would  require  all  their 
children's  help  in  the  travels  we  were  about 
to  undertake.  I  then  dressed  myself,  and 
went  on  deck.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight  to 
one  who  had  not  seen  land  for  three  weeks. 
•Long  Island  was  on  our  right  hand,  and  Staten 
Island,  so  I  was  told  they  were  called,  was  on 
our  left.  Numbers  of  ships,  boats,  and  steam- 
boats of  all  kinds  were  on  the  water,  which 
was  beautifully  blue,  but  not  like  the  blue  of 
the  middle  of  the  ocean.  I  repeated  the  Te 
Deum  as  all  this  met  my  sight." 

Having  left  Havre  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
7th  of  May,  and  cast  anchor  in  the  night  of 


CHAP.  II. THE  KATE  HUNTER.      63 

the  1st  and  2nd  of  June,  we  had  made  the 
voyage  out  in  twenty-five  days :  not  bad  sail- 
ing, considering  that  we  had  been  becalmed 
five  or  six. 


CHAPTER  III. 


NEW  YORK. 

Quarantine. — The  custom  house  officer. — Irish  carmen  and  por- 
ters.— Our  children  on  board. — Broadway. — American  omni- 
buses.— The  post  office. — The  money  changer. — Speculation. 
— The  cobler. — Hotels. — Gentle  and  simple. — A  chamber- 
maid.— Private  rooms. 

I  had  often  heard  the  harbour  of  New  York 
compared  to  the  Bay  of  Naples ;  and  I  can 
now  testify  that  both  are  formed  of  land  and 
water.  Other  resemblance,  I  saw  not :  nothing 
whatever  on  which  to  found  any  degree  of 
comparison.  The  grand  distinguishing  feature 
of  New  York  harbour  is  the  variety  and  fresh- 
ness of  its  waters  ;  uncrowded,  unencumbered 
by  a  mass  of  various  shipping,  such  as  would 
block  up  any  other  port  in  the  world.  But 
where  does  New  York  harbour  begin  1 — where 
end  \  Is  it  the  mouth  of  a  river,  or  is  it  an 
inlet  of  the  sea  amongst  headlands,  adown 
which  a  navigable  river  flows,  and  the  tide 
rises  some  forty  miles  \  an  inlet  confined  be- 


CHAP.  III. NEW  YORK.  65 

tween  banks  from  one  to  five  miles  apart ! 
To  compare  this  with  any  mere  haven  or  basin 
for  shipping,  were  an  absurdity. 

I  did  not  note  that  peculiar  clearness  in  the 
atmosphere  of  which  many  English  travellers 
write, — probably  because  I  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  the  brighter  skies  of  Provence  and 
the  South  of  Europe ;  but  I  could  not  but  re- 
lish the  extraordinary  freshness  of  the  scenery 
around.  Woods,  hills,  houses  and  churches 
that  dotted  them, — all  seemed  delightfully 
clean  and  fresh, — new  and  not  yet  worn  and 
soiled  by  time  ;  and  the  slim  pinnaces  and 
steamers  that  cut  across,  rather  than  through, 
the  waters  in  every  direction,  with  a  speed 
unknown  in  the  old  world,  gave  to  the  whole 
an  animation  and  life  such  as  I  had  noted  in 
no  other  scenery. 

We  were  anchored  opposite  "  Quarantine 
Ground  ", — which,  I  was  told,  was  the  name 
of  a  large  building  on  the  shore  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  on  our  left:  and  the  mate  had  told 
our  boys  how,  in  the  early  settlement  of  the 
country,  the  beautiful  island  on  which  it 
stands  had  been  purchased  from  the  Indians 


DO  THE  WABASH. 

for  an  old  red  uniform  coat  and  six  muskets. 
We  had  scarcely  finished  breakfast,  when  the 
doctor  came  on  board.  He  was  a  fat  little 
man,  and  joining  Captain  Parsons,  put  his 
questions  with  the  rapidity  of  routine,  but  in 
a  tone  of  natural  good  humour. 

"  Well,  how  are  all  here  X  all  well  %  all 
well  V  he  asked.  "  Is  that  lad  hump-backed  V? 
pointing  to  my  fourth  son. 

"  Sit  up,  my  man !"  said  Captain  Parsons, 
giving  him  a  slap  on  his  rounded  shoulders ; 
and  the  doctor  was  quickly  satisfied  that  the 
great  republic  was  not  called  upon  to  admit 
any  deformity. 

"  And  in  the  steerage,"  he  inquired ;  "  howT 
many  dead  ?" 

"  None." 

"  How  many  born  V 

"  Two." 

"  Any  sickness'?" 

"  None." 

"  Any  deformed, — unable  to  gain  their 
living  V 

"NoneT 

"  Any  broken  bones  V 


CHAP.  III. NEW  YORK.  67 

«  One." 

They  went  to  inspect  the  poor  fellow  whose 
leg  had  been  broken  on  board ;  and  it  was 
explained  to  me,  that,  had  any  of  the  emi- 
grants been  maimed,  the  captain  would  have 
been  required  to  deposit  a  fund  to  meet  any 
expense  the  township  might  incur  in  their 
maintenance.  I  was  also  assured,  that  the 
fees  paid  to  this  doctor  of  quarantine  had  so 
much  increased  with  the  increase  in  the  ship- 
ping of  New  York,  as  to  make  his  place  the 
very  best  in  the  Union.  I  will  not  venture  to 
record  figures :  but  the  remuneration  seemed 
to  be  preposterously  great — some  £50,000 
sterling  a  year.  The  fees  of  the  United  States 
consul  at  Liverpool  in  the  first  six  months  of 
that  year  had  been  £8000  sterling. 

Our  captain  went  on  shore,  he  said,  to  fetch 
a  custom-house  officer,  who  should  examine 
our  luggage  on  board.  This  appeared  a  con- 
venience, and  we  assented  to  await  his  return, 
while  all  our  packages  should  be  got  up  from 
the  hold  and  laid  in  the  saloon.  Meanwhile, 
also,  our  poor  emigrants  dressed  themselves 
in  their  best  clothes,  and  brought  up  their 


68  THE  WABASH. 

trunks,  on  which  they  seated  themselves. 
They  sat  for  hours,  casting  wistful  eyes  on 
the  green  land  of  promise,  in  which  each 
hoped  for  plenty  or  fortune.  We  went  to 
dinner ;  and,  at  three  o'clock,  an  officer  came 
from  the  customs  to  examine  all  personal  lug- 
gage. Captain  Parsons  invited  him  to  enter, 
and  take  a  glass  of  wine  at  our  table  ;  but  he 
answered  that  he  would  dismiss  all  the  emi- 
grants first.  Three  hundred  and  sixty  of  these 
had,  at  least,  as  many  boxes :  and  one  man 
was  to  inspect  them  all,  and  let  them  go  on 
shore  that  night !  It  may  well  be  conceived 
that  the  examination  was  not  a  very  rigid  one. 
Some  of  the  boxes  were  chalked  without  being- 
opened  at  all ;  many  were  unlocked  and  closed 
after  a  passing  glance  at  the  boots  and  shoes 
and  working  clothes  of  the  owners ;  some  were 
more  rigidly  inspected;  but,  in  two  or  three 
hours,  all  were  scored  with  chalk  and  declared 
free  to  land. 

This  jewel  of  a  custom-house  officer  then 
entered  our  saloon  :  and  as  we  were  having 
tea,  he  sat  down  and  took  a  cup,  instead  of 
the  wine  which  he  had  deferred.     Meanwhile, 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  69 

he  looked  us  over,  and  doubtless  formed  his 
own  opinion  as  to  our  smuggling  propensities. 
He  took  my  four-year-old  boy  on  his  knee 
and  chatted  with  him  ;  then  jumping  up,  said 
to  him,  "  Come,  my  little  fellow,  you  come 
round  with  me  and  tell  me  what  is  in  every 
one  of  these  boxes." 

"  A  capital  device,"  I  said  ;  "  children  and 
fools  speak  truth." 

He  smiled  in  reply;  and  then  commenced 
his  tour  with  the  child,  who  replied  to  his 
mock  investigation. 

"  Well  now,  sir,"  he  said,  turning  to  me, 
"  here  are  forty-two  packages.  I  shall  open 
four  of  them.  Be  so  good  as  to  point  out 
which  they  shall  be." 

I  requested  him  to  make  the  selection  him- 
self. He  unlocked  two  instead  of  four  out  of 
the  lot,  and  then  scored  them  all  with  chalk 
and  wished  us  good  evening. 

The  man  was  evidently  above  receiving  a 
bribe,  like  Italian  doganieri  in  all  the  pride 
of  military  uniform  ;  and  nothing  of  the  sort 
was  offered  to  him.  He  had  the  good  sense 
to  act  upon  the  rational,  rather  than  the  vex- 


70  THE  WABASH. 

atious  interpretation  of  the  instructions  he  had 
received.  Let  travellers  in  Europe  say  which 
system  is  the  pleasantest,  and,  in  the  long  run, 
the  most  profitable  to  the  revenue  of  the  coun- 
try— making  allowance  for  the  salary  of  the  host 
of  officials  whom  such  an  arrival  would  em- 
ploy in  Europe.  The  doctor  and  this  custom- 
house officer  had  been  on  board,  and  wre  were 
now  free  to  land  with  all  our  goods,  and  to 
circulate  or  reside  without  hindrance  or  in- 
quiry, without  passport  or  carta  di  soggiomo, 
through  all  and  in  all  the  wide  territories  of 
the  Union ! 

I  inquired  what  would  become  of  our  fel- 
low-emigrants; and  was  assured  that  Germans 
never  came  unprovided :  that  each  had  doubt- 
less his  destination  fixed  before  he  left  his 
own  country — probably  in  Wisconsin,  which 
is  being  much  settled  by  Germans — where 
friends  were  expecting  him ;  and  that  assur- 
edly all  had  sufficient  sums  of  money  secreted 
about  their  persons,  although  they  seldom 
"  broke  bulk"  in  New  York. 

At  seven  o'clock,  all  our  luggage  was  drag- 
ged into  a  kind  of  steam-tug,  that  had  come 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  71 

alongside  our  Kate  Hunter ;  those  of  the  emi- 
grants who  were  still  on  board  descended  to 
it ;  their  children  were  passed  down,  like  so 
many  bales  of  goods,  while  the  anxious  mo- 
thers looked  on  from  above  or  received  them 
in  the  boat  below.  Then,  with  my  wife  and 
eldest  boy,  I  also  went  on  it ;  and,  at  s-^ven 
o'clock,  we  put  off  from  our  good  ship  which 
had  borne  us  so  far  and  so  well.  But  here 
I  have  to  record  my  only  complaint  against 
Captain  Parsons ;  here  I  must  record  that  he 
behaved  ill.  He  had  agreed  to  take  me  and 
my  goods  in  his  Kate  Hunter  to  New  York. 
He  deposited  us  in  a  steam-tug  five  miles  from 
the  quay :  he  did  this  that  he  might  avoid  the 
expense  of  harbour  dues  and  await  another 
cargo  where  he  then  lay.  The  consequence 
was  great  danger  of  shipwreck  during  this 
short  passage  ;  doubtless  our  insurance,  if  not 
our  lives,  would  have  been  forfeited  if  it  had 
occurred.  I  might  have  protested  and  re- 
quired the  fulfilment  of  his  contract ;  but  I 
knew  not  to  what  my  condescension  exposed 
me. 

For,  having  made  our  way  with  some  diffi- 


72  THE  WABASH. 

culty  to  the  quay  through  the  other  barges 
that  lay  around  it,  we  were  in  the  midst  of  a 
scene  of  confusion  that  beggars  all  description. 
Scores  of  trucks  and  of  one-horse  carts  en- 
cumbered the  wharf,  and  others  rushed  down 
upon  it  regardless  of  those  before  them.  All 
were  owned  by  Irishmen — the  only  porters  in 
the  United  States :  and  the  vociferations,  the 
howls,  the  curses  became  terrific.  Let  me 
record  that  I  had  only  heard  one  oath  on 
board  the  Kate  Hunter — that  one  was  hurled 
by  the  first  mate  against  the  stupidity  of  one 
of  his  crew.  What,  then,  must  the  Americans 
think  of  the  fearful  swearing  of  these  emi- 
grants !  Darkness  was  coming  on  : — darkness 
closed  around  us :  yet  there  were  we  confined, 
hour  after  hour,  while  these  porters  quarrelled 
among  themselves  and  refused  to  give  way  the 
one  to  the  other.  One  by  one  the  emigrants 
leapt  on  shore,  dragging  their  trunks  after 
them  ;  a  fewT  would  join  together  and  load  a 
cart  with  their  goods,  and  think  they  should, 
at  least,  get  clear  of  the  throng.  Vain  hope  ! 
A  stupid  blackguard  porter,  who  had  not  suc- 
ceeded in  loading  his  own  truck,  blocked  the 


CHAP.  III. NEW  YORK.  73 

way  ;  and  neither  cajolery,  oaths,  nor  entrea- 
ties could  persuade  him  to  move  on  one  side 
and  allow  the  others  to  pass.  In  vain  I  urged 
the  others  to  knock  him  down  and  drive  his 
horse  away :  they  refused  to  exercise  Lynch 
law — knowing,  I  presume,  that  they  were  as 
likely  to  act  in  the  same  manner  themselves 
on  the  following  day :  and  the  swearing  and 
the  vociferation  went  on. 

Meanwhile,  I  had  engaged  two  carts  to 
convey  my  baggage,  and  part  of  it  had  been 
landed  and  piled  upon  the  wharf,  when  a  cry 
came  to  me  that  the  steam-tug  was  sinking, 
and  that  they  were  putting  it  back  into  the 
harbour  in  order  to  turn  it  and  bring  the 
heavy-laden  side  against  the  pier.  This  was 
not  a  pleasant  operation  to  note  through  the 
darkness,  while  my  wife  and  child  were  on  it 
and  that  rabble  crowd  was  howling  around 
me.  It  was,  however,  performed  in  safety  ; 
and,  at  length,  our  whole  baggage  was  landed 
and  placed  upon  carts  :  at  length,  also,,  we  got 
clear  of  the  mob  on  the  quay  and  made  our 
way  out.  No  constable  nor  policeman  had 
interfered.     Why  should  the  citizens  of  New 


74  THE  WABASH. 

York  tax  themselves  and  support  a  police  to 
maintain  order  amongst  emigrants  and  Irish 
porters  1  Let  them  fight  it  out  amongst  them- 
selves. A  shrewd  policy,  perhaps  :  hut  not  a 
liberal  nor  a  creditable  one.  Meanwhile  I  had 
received  my  first  impression,  which  every  sub- 
sequent week  confirmed,  that  the  Irish  ser- 
vants and  porters  (and  none  but  Irish  fill  such 
offices  in  the  hotels),  that  Irish  servants  and 
porters  were  the  nuisance  of  the  United  States. 
Despised  by  the  Americans ;  themselves  de- 
spising the  blacks ;  with  their  bellies  full  for 
the  first  time  in  their  lives  ;  insolent  in  their 
looks  ;  extortionate  in  their  demands  ;  oaths 
in  their  mouths  ;  free  from  all  restraint  of 
neighbourhood  or  parish  priest ;  beggars  upon 
horseback,  they  ride  full  tilt  to ... .  Enough 
for  the  present.  I  would  commit  them  to 
their  clergy  and  the  treadmill. 

The  porters  whom  I  had  selected,  of  course 
professed  themselves  scandalized  by  the  con- 
duct of  their  brethren  :  but  I  was  in  no  hu- 
mour to  listen  to  their  self-laudation  :  and  only 
urged  them  to  conduct  us  to  the  nearest  re- 
spectable hotel ; — I  cared  not  which,  so  that 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  75 

it  were  near  at  hand.  They  stopped,  there- 
fore, in  a  few  minutes,  at  the  door  of  one 
which  they  recommended  by  the  name  of  the 
Battery  Hotel ;  the  only  one,  they  said,  that 
was  at  that  end  of  the  town.  It  was  half-past 
ten  o'clock  when  the  luggage  was  deposited 
in  the  passage  :  and  we  were  conducted  up  a 
carpeted  staircase.  The  house  had  altogether 
an  English  look.  We  had  a  not  very  com- 
fortable tea  in  what  seemed  to  correspond 
with  the  salle  a  manger  of  a  French  hotel : 
but  my  wife  wanted  only  repose  :  and  was 
much  pleased  with  the  look  of  the  large  hand- 
somely-furnished bedroom  they  gave  us  on 
the  first  floor.  And  so  we  slept  for  the  first 
time  on  the  continent  of  America. 

Let  us  return  on  board  our  vessel.  "  That 
morning,"  writes  Louie,  "  I  was  up  before  any 
of  my  sisters,  and  was  exhausting  a  super- 
abundance of  high  spirits  by  racing  over  the 
deck  after  Tiny  the  dog,  when,  to  my  surprise, 
I  saw  two  of  our  brothers  mounting  the  side 
of  the  ship  from  a  boat,  accompanied  by  the 
captain.  Frank,  the  eldest  of  the  two,  then 
told  me,  as  a  profound  secret,  that  they  had 


76  THE  WABASH. 

accompanied  Captain  Parsons  on  shore,  where 
he  had  bought  some  fresh  fish,  some  nice 
bread  (a  rather  scarce  article  on  board),  and 
some  strawberries.  I  do  not  think  we  ever 
enjoyed  a  breakfast  so  much  as  this,  our  last 
on  board  the  Kate  Hunter.'''' 

"  At  length,"  continues  Agnes,  "  we  dis- 
covered papa  and  mama  pushing  towards  us 
in  an  open  boat ;  we  exchanged  a  hail,  and, 
for  the  next  half  hour,  we  were  employed  in 
finishing  to  pack  up,  though  we  had  been 
told  to  have  all  ready ;  but,  as  usual,  some- 
thing was  to  be  done  at  the  last  minute ; 
hoAvever,  in  half-an-hour,  all  the  state  rooms 
had  been  searched  over  for  the  fourth  time, 
each  of  which  was  to  have  been  the  last,  and 
we  all  proceeded  on  deck.  Here  each  of  us 
was  tied  in  a  chair,  covered  with  the  flag 
which  we  were  to  wrap  round  us ;  it  was 
something  like  being  in  a  swing ;  and  when 
the  signal  was  given,  we  were  each  of  us 
hoisted  up  into  the  air  over  the  side  of  the 
vessel.  With  some  of  us,  the  leg  of  the  chair 
caught  in  the  tackle  outside  the  ship,  which 
caused  us  to  be   crooked  and  doubled  up  in 


CHAP.  III. NEW  YORK.  77 

a  not  very  pleasant  predicament  while  it  was 
being  freed:  then  we  were  let  down,  quite 
giddy,  into  a  small  boat,  which  was  in  great 
agitation  on  the  waves.  The  water  was  un- 
usually rough  that  morning.  There  was  some 
doubt  how  my  two  youngest  brothers  could  be 
brought  down ;  but  the  second  mate,  young 
'Go-a-head',  caught  them  both  in  his  arms, 
and,  seating  himself  in  the  chair,  deposited 
them  in  safety  amongst  us.  But  the  waves 
dashed  into  the  boat ;  and  the  boatman  found 
out  he  had  made  a  mistake,  when  he  said  it 
would  hold  us  all.  He  was  obliged  to  leave 
our  two  elder  brothers  for  a  second  trip.  In 
ten  minutes  we  arrived  at  the  land,  but  not 
before  some  of  us  were  drenched  with  salt 
water  ;  however,  we  little  minded  it,  so  glad 
were  we  to  be  on  terra  firma  again." 

A  few  turns  on  the  platform  dried  off  the 
spray  of  the  sea;  the  rest  of  our  party  were 
put  on  shore  ;  in  ten  minutes,  the  little  Sylph 
steamer,  that  plied  between  some  place  lower 
down  and  New  York,  touched  at  Quarantine 
platform  ;  we  seated  ourselves  in  its  ample 
saloon,  built  above  deck ;    and  soon  stepped 


78  THE  WABASH. 

from  it  to  the  quay  at  New  York :  "  which 
was  very  easily  done,"  writes  Agnes,  "  the 
steamers  all  being  made  to  join  the  land,  so 
that  you  had  but  to  walk  on,  and  would  not 
know  the  difference,  or  which  was  which." 
This  was  true;  no  visible  fissure  or  inequality 
dividing  the  floating  deck  from  the  platform. 

The  post-office,  the  bankers,  the  money- 
changers, the  railway-offices  had  to  be  visited ; 
and  the  course  of  business  took  me  over  a 
good  part  of  New  York  that  morning.  I 
have,  however,  little  to  describe.  Broadway, 
that  we  have  all  heard  of,  can  scarcely  be 
called  a  handsome  street.  It  seemed  to  be 
about  two-thirds  the  width  of  Oxford  Street. 
It  may  be,  like  Oxford  Street,  three  miles  long 
or  more ;  but  no  one  ever  spoke  of  the  beauty 
of  Oxford  Street.  The  buildings  on  each  side 
of  Broadway  were  even  more  irregular  Tall, 
well-built  houses  stood  beside  others  half  their 
height ;  houses  of  cement  stood  beside  others 
of  rough  red  or  yellow  bricks,  or  beside  Ste- 
wart's store  of  white  marble — the  handsomest 
shop  in  the  world.  The  pavement  was  very 
bad,  if  paved  it  was ;  but  the  surface  was  so 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  79 

uneven,  that  it  was  difficult  to  ascertain  whe- 
ther all  really  was  stone  under  the  dry  dirt 
that  covered  it.  I  saw  not  the  pigs  usually 
described  as  roaming  in  Broadway  ;  they  had 
been  exiled  by  a  recent  mayor ;  perhaps  the 
street  would  have  been  cleaner  had  such  sca- 
vengers been  left  to  work  it.  The  shops  had 
more  the  appearance  of  wholesale  warehouses, 
than  of  the  smart  places  of  retail  to  which  we 
are  accustomed  in  Europe  ;  and  goods,  piled 
outside  the  doors,  or  lifted  to  or  from  heavy 
drays,  often  encumbered  the  pavement.  Where 
Broadway  passes  beside  the  Park, — a  trian- 
gular space  planted  with  trees,  but  containing 
only  eleven  acres, — the  effect  is  rather  fine. 
But  neither  here  nor  elsewhere  in  the  city  are 
there  any  public  buildings  that  would  attract 
the  notice  of  a  travelled  European. 

The  other  streets  of  the  city  are  laid  out  at 
right  angles  to  one  another,  even  in  the  old 
parts,  on  the  tongue  of  land  between  the  con- 
fluence of  the  East  River  and  the  Hudson ; 
and  higher  up  in  the  more  modern  part  of 
the  town,  they  are  built  by  rule  and  compass, 
and  known  to  Americans  by  names  denoting 


80  THE  WABASH. 

the  order  in  which  they  occur,  from  First 
Street  to  Thirtieth,  or  it  may  be,  by  this  time, 
Sixtieth  Street.  I  marvel  how  any  one  can 
remember  so  monotonous,  so  little  marked  a 
nomenclature. 

A  striking  feature  of  New  York  is  the 
number  of  new  houses  that  are  being  erected 
in  every  part  of  it.  The  pavement  was  really 
encumbered,  every  twenty  yards,  with  piles 
of  bricks  and  building  materials  ;  and  they 
seem  to  be  pulling  down  one  quarter  of  the 
town,  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  re- 
building it. 

But  amid  all  this  disorder  of  business  on  a 
large  and  flourishing  scale,  what  a  racket, 
what  a  crowd,  what  a  rush  !  Hackney-coaches, 
omnibuses,  and  carts  are  driven  at  such  a  rate, 
that  my  wife  insisted  the  people  must  be  all 
mad.  No  handsome  equipages,  no  private 
carriages,  arrest  attention  in  the  streets ;  nor 
are  the  lumbering  hackney-coaches  (whose 
fare  is  so  high  as  to  preclude  their  being  often 
used)  numerous ;  but  the  place  seems  to  swarm 
with  carts,  drays,  and  omnibuses.  These,  too, 
are  for  service  rather  than   for  show.     New 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  81 

York  cannot  afford  two  men  to  wait  upon 
each  omnibus.  The  driver  has  to  perform  the 
part  of  conductor  and  guard  also ;  and  this 
he  is  cleverly  enabled  to  do.  An  open  window 
behind  him  enables  those  in  the  inside  to  tell 
him  when  they  wish  to  get  out;  they  pass 
their  fare  through  the  window  to  him ;  he 
pulls  a  cord  which,  working  on  pullies,  opens 
the  door  at  the  tail  of  the  vehicle,  and  he 
scarcely  checks  his  horses  while  the  party 
walks  out.  Meanwhile,  should  a  passenger, 
who  has  not  passed  his  fare  through  the  window 
in  the  roof,  seize  the  opportunity  and  try  to 
escape,  the  driver  pulls  the  cord  again,  slams 
to  the  door,  and  catches  him  by  the  leg.  If 
people  have  not  their  change  ready  when  they 
wish  to  get  down,  it  is  their  own  fault,  and 
he  carries  them  on.  He  may  not  delay  his 
other  passengers  and  stop  the  omnibus  while 
they  are  fumbling  for  their  money. 

The  weather  was  very  hot ;  and  the  men  in 
the  streets  were  mostly  dressed  in  brown  linen 
frock  coats.  The  ladies  wTere  much  smarter ; 
and  selected  such  glowing  colours  as  they 
thought  best  suited  to  their  own  complexions. 


82  THE  WABASH. 

Scarlet  and  yellow  and  the  brighter  hues 
seemed  most  in  vogue — the  general  style  of 
female  dress  being  an  exaggeration  of  Parisian 
fashions. 

At  the  post  office,  I  found  a  very  inconve- 
nient custom  to  prevail ;  the  direction  of  let- 
ters addressed  to  the  post  office,  or  to  persons 
whose  address  is  not  known,  is  printed  and 
hung  up  outside  the  window  for  a  certain 
number  of  days ;  if  not  called  for  within  that 
time,  the  letters  are  destroyed.  I  am  surprised 
that  a  commercial  community,  whose  corre- 
spondence must  be  so  dependent  upon  winds 
and  waves,  should  tolerate  so  clumsy  a  con- 
trivance for  lessening  the  work  of  clerks.  Very 
many  more  letters  arrive  in  either  the  London, 
the  Liverpool,  or  the  Southampton  post  office 
than  in  that  of  New  York  ;  but  it  is  not  found 
necessary  to  resort  to  such  a  barbaric  plan  to 
prevent  accumulation. 

I  was  recommended  to  Mr.  Beebee,  the  mo- 
ney-changer; and  a  most  respectable  gentle- 
man I  found  Mr.  Beebee  in  his  little  cellar  in 
Wall  Street.  I  consigned  to  him  a  large  sum 
in  Bank  of  England  notes,  for  which  he  gave 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  83 

me  a  memorandum,  allowing  for  them  their 
fair  value  and  interest,  unless  he  heard  by  re- 
turn of  post  from  England  that  they  were 
forged  !  We  smiled  at  this  symptom  of  the 
habits  and  experience  of  men  of  business  in 
New  York.  But  a  New  York  man  of  busi- 
ness could  not  willingly  see  so  large  a  sum  of 
presumed-to-be-genuine  money  carried  beyond 
his  reach  without  attempting  to  get  something 
more,  out  of  it  than  what  he  could  make  over 
and  above  the  six  per  cent,  interest  he  was  to 
allow  us  for  the  deposit :  and  thus  the  conver- 
sation was  carried  on  : — 

"  Well,  sir  ;   I  guess  you'll  make  some  stay- 
in  New  York  city  ?" 

"  No  ;  we  purpose  leaving  it  to-morrow  or 
next  day." 

"  Going  to  Boston  or  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington ?" 

"  To  neither ;  we  shall  go  up  to  the  Lakes 
and  into  the  Far  West !" 

"  What !    not  remain   to  see  our  first-rate 
seaboard  cities  V 

"  Every  city  must  be  more  or  less  alike  ;  and 
I   can  judge  of  the  peculiarities  of  those  of 


84  THE  WABASH. 

your  old  States  by  what  I  see  of  New  York. 
I  know  almost  every  city  of  Europe :  and  I 
think  I  shall  be  better  able  to  study  America 
and  American  character  in  the  country." 

"  Well,  sir ;  but  this  money.  I  can  tell  you 
of  a  mode  of  investing  it  here  so  that  it  will  be 
surely  doubled  before  you  want  to  call  for  it. 
Some  coal  mines  have  lately  been  discovered 
so  placed  that  we  shall  be  able  to  drive  all 
competition  out  of  New  York.  The  shares  are 
now  low ;  but,  in  a  few  days,  will  be  at  a  pre- 
mium. Let  me  introduce  you  to  my  friend 
here  who  will  give  all  particulars." 

The  friend  thereupon  held  out  his  hand, 
shook  mine  with  warmth,  and  began  talking 
with  a  frankness  that,  in  Europe,  could  have 
only  sprung  from  lengthened  acquaintance. 
I  observed  this  throughout  the  United  States : 
Americans  are  formal  and  distant  till  intro- 
duced— it  matters  not  by  whom  ;  but  that 
ceremony  having  once  taken  place,  they  break 
off  whatever  they  might  be  saying  to  shake 
hands,  and  seem  to  consider  you,  thenceforth, 
as  one  of  themselves. 

Mr.  Beebee  gave  me  maps  and  prospectuses 


CHAP.  III. NEW  YORK.  85 

of  the  coal  mine,  which  he  urged  me  to  study 
and  distribute  when  I  should  have  first  se- 
cured for  myself  as  many  shares  as  could  be 
bought  with  the  money  I  had  deposited  with 
him ;  and  his  friend  insisted  on  taking  me  to 
the  office  of  the  young  company,  where  I  was 
shown  great  maps  of  the  mines  on  the  scale  of 
about  a  yard  to  a  mile.  I  was  very  polite  ;  pro- 
mised to  think  the  matter  over ;  and  proceeded 
on  my  way ;  admiring  this  first  specimen  of 
American  smartness. 

I  met  Captain  Parsons  in  the  street,  and  he 
took  me  into  a  little  shop,  hung  with  white 
and  pink  glazed  calico,  and  in  the  centre  of 
which  was  a  clean  counter  and  half  a  dozen 
bottles  of  wine  or  spirit,  and  insisted  upon 
treating  me  to  my  first  glass  of  American 
liquor.  What  would  I  have  I  "  Sherry  cobler", 
"mint  julip",  or  a  "brandy  smasher",  —  or 
any  of  half  a  dozen  other  delicacies  which  he 
named  I  I  chose  the  far-famed  sherry  cobler. 
and  curiously  watched  the  lad  behind  the 
counter  squeeze  a  little  lemon  into  a  large 
tumbler  full  of  small  lumps  of  bright,  trans- 
parent ice ;  lay  over  them  one  or  two  bits  of 


86  THE  WABASH. 

lemon  peel  (perhaps  a  dusting  of  spice,  I  am 
not  certain  now),  cover  the  whole  over  with 
pounded  white  sugar  and  then  pour  about  a 
wine-glassful  of  sherry  over  all.  He  handed 
it  to  me  with  a  glass  tube  about  eight  inches 
long.  I  was  shown  how  to  push  this  among 
the  lumps  of  ice  to  the  bottom  and  to  suck  up 
through  it  the  liquor  there.  I  did  so.  The  day 
was  excessively  hot  and  I  was  fatigued  by  my 
walk  and  by  my  exertions  in  fighting  shy  of 
Mr.  Beebee's  coal  mine.  I  sucked  it  up  to  the 
last  drop  :  then,  turning  to  Captain  Parsons,  I 
exclained,  "  It  is  worth  a  voyage  to  New  York 
to  enjoy  that!"  I  did  not  tell  him  it  was  worth 
what  we  had  undergone  on  the  pier  owing  to 
his  breach  of  contract ;  and  we  parted  good 
friends. 

I  need  not  in  future  describe  the  composi- 
tion of  these  American  drinks.  All  are  made 
in  the  same  manner ;  but  flavoured  differently 
with  mint,  brandy,  or  otherwise.  They  are 
very  delicious. 

There  was  a  large,  handsomely  furnished 
sitting-room,  with  a  piano,  in  our  hotel  for 
the  use  of  all  the  inmates ;  all  were  expected 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  87 

to  take  their  meals  together  in  the  dining-room. 
To  this  we  were  summoned  by  a  tremendous 
gong,  that  rumbled  through  all  the  house 
at  one  o'clock.  When  we  entered  the  room  a 
few  minutes  after,  the  company  had  already 
advanced  far  through  their  meal.  Vegetables, 
lobster-salads,  and  dessert  were  on  the  table  ; 
the  solid  meats  and  the  "  fruit  pies "  (else- 
where, open  tarts)  were  carved  by  the  landlord 
at  a  side  table.  No  one  drank  wine  or  beer, 
but  vast  quantities  of  water,  in  which  floated 
lumps  of  ice.  "  At  seven  o'clock  next  morn- 
ing," writes  Louie,  "  this  gong  was  carried 
round  to  the  doors  of  all  the  bed-rooms,  to 
awaken,  and  then  deafen,  all  the  inmates.  In 
half-an-hour,  just  as  our  ears  were  beginning 
to  recover  from  the  infliction,  it  was  repeated 
to  announce  the  first  breakfast.  In  another 
half-hour,  the  gong  sounded  again  for  the 
second  breakfast,  consisting  of  what  was  left 
from  the  first ;  this  meal  was  for  the  nurses, 
children,  and  all  those  who  had  been  too  lazy 
to  get  up  in  time  for  the  first ;  the  master  of 
the  hotel  and  his  family  also  breakfasted  at  it. 
As  soon  as  it  was  over,  all  the  waiters  of  the 


88  THE  WABASH. 

hotel  sat  down.  Throughout  America  there 
are  no  private  parlours  in  the  hotels,  but  two 
public  sitting-rooms :  one  is  called  the  '  La- 
dies' sitting-room',  the  other  is  a  reading-room 
where  the  gentlemen  smoke  and  read  the 
papers.  Every  ladies'  room  is  provided  with 
rocking-chairs.  At  first  we  greatly  disliked 
these  rocking-chairs,  but  we  soon  began  to 
feel  differently  towards  them.  The  American 
ladies  rock  and  fan  themselves  incessantly, 
except  when  they  play  on  the  piano,  one  of 
which  is  in  every  sitting-room." 

"  One  day,"  continues  Agnes,  "  a  fat  old 
lady,  who  seemed  glued  to  the  rocking-chair, 
for  we  found  her  there  in  the  morning  and 
left  her  there  at  night,  pulled  towards  her  the 
corner  of  my  pocket-handkerchief,  and  point- 
ing to  the  mark,  said,  '  That  proves  you  are 
from  the  old  country ;  we  could  not  afford  to 
spend  our  time  in  marking  things  here'.  I 
suppose,"  continues  my  saucy  child,  "  it  would 
hinder  them  from  going  a-head  fast  enough. 
So  the  churches  in  this  place  are  obliged  to 
be  shut  except  during  service,  because  some 
of  the  New  Yorkers,  not  satisfied  with  going 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  89 

a-head  in  the  usual  manner,  would  do  it  by 
quicker  means, — by  such  as  would  be  called 
stealing  '  in  the  old  country ',  but  which  are 
perhaps  justified  by  liberty  and  equality  here." 
I  deny  my  child's  imputation  of  dishonesty  in 
the  Americans;  she  was  only  thirteen  when 
she  was  in  the  country — fourteen  when  she 
wrote ;  it  may  be  necessary  to  close  the 
churches  against  the  emigrants  in  New  York, 
the  riff-raff  of  Europe;  but  real  Americans 
must  not  be  confounded  with  these.  "  The 
sun  was  excessively  hot,"  continues  my  critic, 
*'  so  that  we  did  not  attempt  to  see  the  town 
in  the  morning.  About  five  o'clock,  a  great 
many  parties  of  very  finely-dressed  ladies  drove 
in  their  carriages  to  the  Battery  Gardens,  under 
the  windows  of  our  hotel,  and  got  out  and 
walked.  We  went  to  the  Broadway,  which  is 
a  very  handsome  street.  We  noticed  a  great 
many  pretty  girls  walking  about:  many  of 
them  in  bright  scarlet  shawls.  It  was  quite 
astonishing  to  see  the  number  of  houses  being- 
built.  Parts  of  almost  every  street  you  went 
into  were  blocked  up  with  bricks  and  mortar. 
Some  of  the  shops  in   Broadway   were  very 


90  THE  WABASH. 

magnificent.  There  was  a  linen-draper's  shop 
faced  with  pillars  of  white  marble ;  but  as 
people  in  trade  are  the  gentlemen  of  America, 
this  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  wondered  at ;  and 
the  more  you  go  west,  the  more  gentle  they 
become ;  so  that,  at  last,  a  shoemaker  desired 
a  waiter  '  to  ask  the  gentleman  in  the  bar  to 
give  the  man  (meaning  papa)  his  boots.' 

"  The  next  morning,"  she  continues,  "  was 
the  commencement  of  our  troubles.  Our  dear 
mama  had  caught  cold  and  over-fatigued  her- 
self in  landing,  and  now  kept  her  bed,  with  a 
cough,  and  a  blister  on  her  chest.  Our  pets 
also  began  to  diminish :  our  dormouse  died, 
we  believe  from  eating  biscuit  that  had  been 
wetted  with  the  salt  water  that  hafl  washed 
over  us  in  the  boat ;  and,  the  same  day,  one 
of  the  canaries  was  found  dead  in  the  bottom 
of  its  cage.  Our  little  dog  had  been  ailing  for 
some  time  on  board  the  Kate  Hunter  ;  but  its 
fate  was  reserved." 

"  The  second  night  after  our  arrival  at  the 
hotel,"  Louie  records,  "  mama  had  rung  her 
bedroom  bell  for  some  hot  water.  The  cham- 
bermaid answered  that  it  was  ten  o'clock,  and 


CHAP.   III. NEW  YORK.  91 

that  there  was  no  fire  in  the  house.  Next 
day,  the  girl,  who  was  an  Irishwoman,  had 
found  out  that  we  were  Catholics,  and  ex- 
claimed, '  Sure,  if  I'd  known  that,  I'd  have 
lighted  the  fire  again,  and  have  boiled  the 
water  meeself  sooner  than  that  you  should 
have  gone  without  it.'  From  this  time,  she 
was  particularly  civil  and  obliging." 

After  another  day's  acquaintance,  this  wo- 
man prayed,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  that  we 
would  take  her  with  us.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  ill-feeling  against  her  religion,  she 
said,  in  New  York,  and  she  wished  to  get 
into  a  Catholic  family.  I  knew  that  servants 
would  be  more  and  more  scarce  the  further 
we  went ;  and  as  the  people  of  the  hotel  gave 
her  a  good  character,  my  wife  consented  to 
her  wishes,  and  I  took  a  place  for  her  to 
Buffalo. 

An  American  hotel  is,  in  fact,  a  boarding- 
house.  The  highest  charge  made  by  any  in 
New  York  for  private  bedroom  and  the  use  of 
public  sitting-rooms,  for  tea  and  breakfast 
with  cold  meat,  and  for  dinner  of  every  deli- 
cacy, is  two-and-a-half  dollars  per  head ;   the 


92  THE  WABASH. 

lowest  charge  is  one  dollar  and  a-half.  A 
dollar  may  be  counted  as  4s.  2d.  These 
charges,  which  include  all  service  except  that 
of  porter,  are  very  moderate  for  a  single  per- 
son: very  high  when  applied  to  a  family  of 
children.  Private  sitting-rooms  and  meals  in 
private  may,  certainly,  be  had ;  what  may  not 
be  had  for  money  %  But  the  innkeepers  do 
not  like  to  be  so  put  out  of  their  way ;  further 
west,  nothing  would  induce  them  so  to  alter 
the  arrangements  of  their  establishments.  Tra- 
vellers who  so  exclude  themselves  in  a  country 
whose  people  live  in  public,  deprive  them- 
selves of  a  great  means  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  it.  They  are  disliked ;  they  are  thought 
proud  ;  and  are  left  to  themselves.  The  Bat- 
tery Hotel  is  a  good  second-rate  house  ;  both 
it  and  the  Atlantic  are,  or  were  three  years 
ago,  the  only  houses  near  the  sea ;  all  the 
others — a  mile  or  two  up  Broadway — are  too 
distant  for  those  who  escape  from  the  porters 
on  the  quay  at  half-past  ten  o'clock  at  night. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE   RIVER  AND  THE  RAILROAD. 

A  sharp  man. — The  Irish  maid. — The  river  boat. — The  Hudson. 
— West  Point. — The  railway  versus  the  river. — Selling  pets. 
— The  New  World  aground. — Albany. — The  sharp  agency. 
— An  Albany  waiter. — The  railway  cars. — British  delicacy. — 
First  class  trains. — The  scenery. — Rome. — Oneida. — Cayuga 
Lake. — 'Geneva. — The  burning  spring. — Rochester. 

I  had  thought  myself  too  old  a  traveller  to  be 
taken  in  even  by  a  Yankee  sharper  ;  but  yet  I 
allowed  myself  to  be  persuaded,  by  the  people 
of  an  office  in  New  York,  to  take  river  and 
railway  tickets  from  them  for  the  whole  dis- 
tance to  Buffalo.  There  are  very  many  of  these 
offices,  which  profess  to  forward  travellers  for 
much  less  than  the  regular  fares — pretending 
either  that  they  have  contracted  with  the  dif- 
ferent companies,  or  that  they  have  bought  up 
tickets  during  a  period  of  competition  for  less 
than  their  present  value.  Many  are  the  emi- 
grants who  are  thus  induced  to  contract  for 
their  whole  passage  to  the  most  distant  parts 
of  the  Union,  and  who  either  pay  much  more 


94:  THE  WABASH. 

than  the  regular  fares,   or  find  their  tickets 
worthless  after  the  first  few  stages. 

I  merely  mention  this  to  show  the  state  of 
morality  and  police  in  New  York.  I  myself 
had  ascertained  what  were  the  regular  fares ; 
and  lost  only  some  of  the  contingent  advan- 
tages promised  me  by  "  the  Agency"  from  buy- 
ing my  tickets  from  them. 

The  maid,  who  had  besought  us  to  take  her 
with  us,  had  gone  home  to  see  her  friends,  and 
did  not  return  to  the  hotel.  She  knew  that 
we  had  paid  for  a  place  for  her  for  the  first 
five  hundred  miles,  and  we  thought  that  we 
might  meet  her  on  the  packet.  She  was  not 
there,  and  our  growing  feelings  against  Irish 
emigrants  in  America  were  not  lessened. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  we  walked  on  board 
the  New  World  steamer  with  that  facility 
which  my  daughter  has  recorded  when  we 
landed  at  New  York :  the  platform  and  the 
deck  were  so  closely  and  evenly  joined  that 
we  knew  not  where  one  ended  and  the  other 
began.  But  what  a  deck  was  that  of  this 
steamer,  which  was  said  to  have  been  re- 
cently built  and  to  be  the  largest  in  the  United 


CHAP.  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.  95 

States  !  Two  immense  saloons  covered  half  of 
it,  and  opened  upon  a  terrace  or  balcony  that 
ran  round  them,  a  few  feet  above  the  water. 
There  was,  moreover,  the  open  deck  in  front 
of  the  saloon  ;  the  deck  forward,  for  second- 
class  passengers  and  luggage  ;  and  the  flat 
roof  of  the  two  saloons  covered  by  an  awning. 
I  cannot  give  other  dimensions  than  that  the 
vessel  wras  three  hundred  and  sixty  feet  long : 
suffice  it  to  say  that  the  saloons  were  very 
large  drawing-rooms,  receiving  light  and  air 
from  a  score  or  so  of  windows,  opening  upon 
the  gallery  around,  and  through  which  the 
whole  river  scenery  could  be  enjoyed  by  those 
reclining  within.  They  were  fitted  up  with 
all  the  gorgeousness  and  splendour  that  could 
be  imparted  by  gilding,  mirrors,  chandeliers, 
rich  carpets  and  couches,  and  sofas  of  satin 
and  brocade.  Well,  indeed,  are  these  steamers 
called  floating  palaces  !  There  was  one  on  the 
river,  called  the  Rein  Deer,  not  quite  so  large 
as  the  New  World,  but  said  to  be  swifter,  and 
which  was  even  more  richly  decorated.  The 
only  unsightly  objects  to  an  English  mind 
were  the  frequent  cut-glass  spittoons  that  be- 


96  THE  WABASH. 

strewed  the  carpets,  and  which  I  made  it  a 
rule  to  stumble  over  as  I  walked  up  and  down. 
The  main  city  of  New  York,  exclusive  of 
the  suburbs  built  upon  the  neighbouring 
lands,  stands  upon  the  point  and  tongue  of 
land  between  Long  Island  Sound  and  the 
Hudson  river,  which  comes  straight  down 
from  the  north,  and  is,  therefore,  generally 
spoken  of  in  the  country  by  the  name  of 
North  River.  Up  this  river,  our  steamer  be- 
gan to  move,  at  a  speed  of  more  than  eighteen 
miles  an  hour,  against  current ;  and  passed,  in 
succession,  numerous  little  towns  and  villages 
— suburbs  of  New  York  and  places  of  holiday 
resort  for  its  citizens.  They  were  more  or  less 
beautifully  nestled  in  the  bright  scenery  on 
either  side ; — bright  but  not  striking,  till  we 
came  to  the  wonderful  precipitous  bank  of 
traprock,  which  rises  abruptly  from  the  river, 
on  the  western  side,  to  the  height  of  about  five 
hundred  feet.  These,  called  the  Palissades, 
are  dark  and  frowning ;  and  extend,  an  almost 
impassable  boundary,  for  about  twenty  miles, 
as  far  as  Tappan.  To  our  fathers,  this  was  a 
well  known  name :  General  Washington's  head- 


CHAP.   IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.  97 

quarters  were  here,  during  the  war  of  Inde- 
pendence in  1780,  when  Major  Andre  of  the 
English  army  was  hanged  by  him  as  a  spy. 
But  Washington  Irving's  pretty  villa  soon 
woos  us  to  pleasanter  thoughts,  of  himself,  of 
Columbus,  of  Astoria,  and  of  the  conquest  of 
Granada:  his  genius  carries  our  minds  away 
even  from  this  majestic  stream,  although  it 
here  expands  into  a  bay  from  two  to  three 
miles  broad.  On  the  top  of  the  rocks,  some- 
where above  here,  is  a  lake  four  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, from  which  New  York  is  supplied 
with  its  best  ice ;  the  ice,  in  winter,  is  sawed 
out  into  large  blocks,  which  are  slid  down  an 
inclined  plane  to  the  river's  edge,  and  kept  till 
the  frost  breaks  up  and  they  can  be  embarked 
for  the  city. 

But  the  shores  of  the  mighty  stream  con- 
tract ;  high  mountains  close  it  in  on  each  side, 
and  in  front ;  there  is  surely  no  egress  from 
amongst  these  frowning  rocks X  Yes,  yes; 
there  is  a  narrow  opening  in  front,  leading  di- 
rect through  the  mountains,  and  there  is  also 
one  on  the  right  hand,  at  the  base  of  that  tow- 
ering peak :  which  will  the  pilot  take  ?  Which 


98  THE  WABASH. 

of  the  two  ravines  shall  we  explore  ?  Neither. 
The  great  steamer  almost  grazes  the  base  of 
the  naked  precipices,  and  turns  sharply  round 
to  the  left,  and  threads  a  chasm  down  which 
the  waters  boil  and  race.  A  sinuous  channel 
opens  to  us  amongst  the  mountains  that  close 
behind  and  on  either  hand;  and, for  some  miles, 
we  breast  a  boiling  torrent  that  rushes  through 
magnificent  scenery.  This  is  called  the  Horse 
Race.  Nothing  on  the  Rhine  will  bear  the 
slightest  comparison  to  it :  "it  whips  all  crea- 
tion." 

I  have  not  stopped  to  describe  the  state  pri- 
son at  Clinton :  no  doubt  Dickens  has  fully 
spoken  of  it  with  other  institutions  of  the 
United  States :  nor  can  I  now  pause  amid  the 
lovely  scenery  of  AVest  Point,  where  Kos- 
ciusko loved  to  meditate,  and  where  the  cadets 
of  the  military  school  have  erected  a  handsome 
monument  to  his  memory.  I  was  informed 
that  this  military  school  is  an  excellently-con- 
ducted institution :  unlike  our  own  military  aca- 
demies, according  to  recent  revelations  (which 
I  would  not  believe),  the  highest  sense  of  ho- 
nour and  honesty  exists  amongst  the  pupils ; 


CHAP.   IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.  99 

the  slightest  falsehood  or  breach  of  either  is 
followed  by  immediate  expulsion — insisted  on 
by  the  other  pupils,  and  gladly  acquiesced  in 
by  the  chiefs.  But  our  steamer  takes  another 
sharp  turn  amid  the  rocks ;  the  river  again  ex- 
pands, and  the  lovely  scenery  of  Crow's  Xcst, 
on  its  cliff  fifteen  hundred  feet  high,  engrosses 
and  delights  us. 

Pass  we  the  thriving  town  of  Poughkeepsie  ; 
pass  we  the  village  of  Catskill,  with  its  distant 
hills  and  waterfalls ;  the  train  upon  the  rail- 
road, that  runs  parallel  with  the  river,  is  pass- 
ing them  all  even  quicker  than  we.  Strange 
that  a  railway  can  be  maintained  in  opposition 
to  such  splendid  water  carriage !  But,  during 
all  the  winter,  that  water  carriage  is  locked 
up  by  ice ;  and  then  the  railway  reaps  its 
double  harvest.  Strange  rather  that  such 
floating  palaces  can  be  maintained,  for  the 
summer  months  only,  against  a  railway  that 
can  work  during  the  whole  year  round !  But 
the  steamers  communicate  with  both  sides  of 
the  river :  the  railway  only  with  one ;  and 
the  steamers  are,  evidently,  preferred  by  all 
who  can  convert  the  transaction  of  business 


100  THE  WABASH. 

into  a  pleasure  excursion,  through  some  of 
the  most  magnificent  scenery  in  the  world. 
"  Several  ladies,  evidently  brides,  were  now 
on  board  the  New  World  with  us,"  writes 
Louie ;  "  and  a  number  of  very  young  mamas, 
with  little  squalling  babies,  whom  they  alter- 
nately scolded  and  petted.  These  were  con- 
fined to  the  inner  saloon,  with  their  nurses. 
Most  of  the  ladies  sat  out  on  the  roof-deck, 
under  the  awning.  When  I  first  went  up 
there,  accompanied  by  mama's  little  dog,  it 
excited  a  great  deal  of  admiration  amongst 
all  the  ladies  ;  for  most  of  the  little  dogs  in 
America  are  very  ugly.  Soon  after,  when  my 
brother,  Kenelm,  was  walking  about  with  it, 
a  man  came  up  to  him  and  said : 

" '  How  much  would  you  sell  me  that  dog 
for  V 

"  '  I  would  not  sell  it  at  all.' 

"  '  Well  now,  I  calculate  you  would  not  re- 
fuse a  couple  of  hundred  dollars  for  it  V 

"  '  Indeed  I  should :  it  is  not  to  be  sold  for 
any  money.     It  is  a  pet.' 

"  The  man  looked  very  much  surprised,  and 
walked    away.      On    another    occasion,"  con- 


CHAP.  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.        101 

tinues  Louie,  "  a  lady  asked  Lucy  for  how 
much  she  would  sell  her  parrot, — a  grey  one, 
and  a  great  rarity  there,  where  they  have  the 
green  parrots  only.  Outside  the  saloon  ran 
a  small  balcony,  on  which  I  stood,  with  two 
of  my  brothers,  nearly  all  the  time,  looking1  at 
the  beautiful  banks  of  the  Hudson  on  each 
side  of  us.  Every  now  and  then,  there  were 
breaks  in  the  masses  of  forest  trees,  disclosing 
pretty  villas  and  chalets  built  of  wood." 

"  Bright  and  beautiful  shone  the  sun," 
writes  Agnes :  "  in  fact,  it  was  a  day  to  make 
the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Hudson  banks 
appear  more  beautiful  still ;  and  nothing  but 
the  scenery  could  make  us  stand  out  under 
the  burning  sun  that  was  pouring  down  upon 
us.  But  one  does  not  go  on  the  Hudson  every 
day." 

At  last,  my  satirist  of  America  had  found 
something  in  it  to  admire  ! 

I  was  amused  to  observe  the  construction 
of  the  railroad  which,  as  T  have  said,  runs 
parallel  with  the  river.  It  often  skirted  the 
waters,  and  cut  across  shallows  in  the  bends 
of  the  ravines.     In  these   cases,  what  think 


102  THE  WABASH. 

you,  friend  shareholder,  the  rails  rested  on  % 
No  brick  or  stone  arches ;  no  raised  embank- 
ment ;  no  piers  even  for  the  sleepers  to  lie 
upon  were  there.  Wooden  piles  were  driven 
into  the  ground,  and  to  these  the  very  sleepers 
were  nailed.  The  rails  lay  upon  them ;  and 
from  the  deck  of  the  Neio  World,  I  could  see 
the  whole  fabric  shake  and  tremble  as  the 
trains  rattled  over  them,  smoking  and  whis- 
tling, and  seeming  to  shout  defiance  to  our 
steamer. 

"  Oh  my  poor  shares  !"  exclaimed  an  English 
speculator,  to  whom  I  described  the  engineer- 
ing of  the  line. 

All  the  company  (not  the  railway  share- 
holders, but  ours  of  the  New  World)  went 
down  to  dine.  I  could  not  introduce  all  my 
children  to  the  table  d'hote  of  these  holiday 
folks ;  and  I  bespoke  a  dinner  for  us  at  a 
separate  table.  There  we  eat  at  our  leisure 
and  comfortably ;  not  being  obliged  to  swallow 
our  dinner  in  ten  minutes. 

When  we  went  on  deck  again,  the  river 
banks  were  no  longer  broken  and  picturesque, 
as  in  the  lower  half  of  the  Hudson.     The 


CHAP.  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         103 

hills  were  more  depressed  and  rounded  ;  the 
water  was  sluggish,  and  often  broken  up  by 
low  muddy  islands ;  the  banks  were  over- 
grown by  reeds  ;  and,  at  three  o'clock,  when 
we  had  proceeded  one  hundred  and  forty 
miles  from  New  York,  and  were  within  sight 
of  Albany,  the  New  World  ran  aground! 
There  was  no  noise,  no  objurgation :  every 
one  seemed  either  to  have  expected  the  event 
or  to  be  used  to  it,  or  to  be  aware  that  the 
managers  would  do  the  best  they  could  ; 
and  the  first  assurance  I  had  of  the  fact,  was 
from  seeing  the  passengers  pass  to  the  deck 
of  a  little  steamer  that  had  come  alongside  of 
us.  In  this,  we  were  uncomfortably  crowded ; 
but  we  soon  reached  Albany.  Our  luggagt 
was  to  come  up  in  the  New  World,  which 
would  float  again  when  lightened  of  its  pas- 
sengers. We  walked  to  the  hotel ;  and  1 
went  to  the  agents  from  whom  I  had  purchased 
my  tickets  and  booked  myself  "through"  to 
Buffalo. 

I  explained  to  a  man  whom  I  found  there, 
that  my  luggage  was  on  board  the  steamer, 
and  that  I  required  to  have  it  moved,  accord- 


104  THE    WABASH. 

ing  to  contract,  to  the  hotel  for  the  night,  and 
to  be  supplied  with  tickets  for  Buffalo.  He 
met  me  civilly,  but  with  much  demur ;  the 
head  clerk  was  out ;  and  the  key  of  the  office 
could  not  be  found.  However,  perceiving 
that  I  was  not  to  be  put  off,  as,  doubtless, 
hundreds  of  poor  emigrants  had  been  by  the 
same  "agency",  the  head  clerk  was  found, 
the  key  of  the  desk  was  found;  and  the  re- 
quisite number  of  first-class  railway  tickets 
were  given  in  exchange  for  my  New  York 
receipt.  The  removal  of  the  luggage  I  could 
not  get  them  to  undertake.  They  declared 
that  I  had  more  than  the  proper  quantity,  and 
that  their  New  York  correspondents  could  not 
have  intended  to  charge  them  with  the  con- 
veyance of  it.  Rejoicing  that  I  had,  at  least, 
secured  my  railroad  tickets,  which  they  had 
evidently  not  intended  to  give  me,  I  hired 
other  porters,  and  returned  to  the  hotel. 

The  fare  from  New  York  to  x\lbany  by  the 
night  boats  is  one  dollar,  or  fifty  cents,  or  as 
little  as,  owing  to  the  usual  competition,  pas- 
sengers please  to  pay ;  that  by  the  New  World 
and  Rein  Deer,  the  only  two  day  boats,  is  two 


CHAP.   IV. —  RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         105 

dollars  and  a-half.  I  was  charged  sixty  cents 
a  head  for  breakfast  on  board,  and  five  dollars 
for  our  dinner,  without  wine  ;  and  two  dollars 
for  extra  luggage.  But  we  had  passed  over  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and.  forty-five  miles. 

Albany,  so  called  after  the  Duke  of  York 
and  Albany,  afterwards  James  the  Second,  and 
one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  the  country,  is  well 
situated  on  a  rising  ground  above  the  river. 
Its  streets  are  tolerably  well  built  for  an  old 
town,  and  contained  about  fifty  thousand  in- 
habitants. Delavan's  Hotel,  there,  is  a  large, 
half-furnished  building ;  it  was  conducted 
with  the  regularity  of  a  military  boarding 
house,  but  without  refinement  or  considera- 
tion for  the  comfort  of  its  customers  ;  it  was  a 
sort  of  caravanserai,  where  men  walked  in  or 
out,  and  smoked  about  the  passages  and  cor- 
ridors, at  their  pleasure  ;  the  only  regulation 
being  that  they  should  take  their  meals  at  beat 
of  gong,  or  not  at  all,  and  pay  the  established 
price  for  their  board.  The  ladies'  sitting- 
room  here,  also,  was  large  and  handsomely 
furnished  :   the  bed-rooms  were  very  plain. 

"  Next  morning,"  writes  Louie,  "  we  were 


106  THE    WABASH. 

sitting  at  breakfast  and  our  parents  had  not 
yet  made  their  appearance,  when  a  waiter 
came  up  to  Kenelm,  who  hated  everything 
that  he  thought  savoured  of  '  liberty  and 
equality,'  and  said  to  him,  '  Is  the  old  man 
down  yet?' 

"  '  What  old  man  V 
«  <  Why,  the  old  man,  to  be  sure.' 
"  '  I  do  not  know  who  you  mean.' 
"  '  Why  the  old  man,  your  father,  of  course.' 
"  My  brother,  very  angry,  said,  '  I  am  not 
accustomed  to  hear  my  father  spoken   of  in 
such  a  manner.' 

"  The  waiter  stared  and  went  away  laugh- 
ing." 

When  "  the  old  man,"  that's  I,  came  in  af- 
terwards, I  found  the  table  loaded  with  tea 
and  coffee,  with  hot  rolls  and  hot  corn  bread, 
with  sweetmeats,  molasses,  pancakes,  and  lots 
of  cold  meat :  it  was  more  like  a  north  country 
than  an  English  or  European  breakfast.  Negro 
waiters  were  in  attendance,  much  to  the  sur- 
prise and  dislike  of  my  younger  children,  who 
complained  of  their  dirty  hands.  I  myself 
was  very  favourably  impressed  by  their  quiet 


CHAP  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         107 

way  of  moving  about,  and  by  their  civil  atten- 
tions. It  was  not  a  negro,  but  an  Irish  waiter, 
who  had  given  me  brevet  rank  as  "  the  old 
man." 

Albany  is  145  miles  from  New  York,  200 
from  Boston,  250  from  Montreal,  and  325  from 
Buffalo  :  in  America,  it  is  considered  to  be  a 
most  central  situation.  In  Europe,  it  would 
be  thought  quite  out  of  reach  of  any  of  these 
its  neighbouring  towns  ! 

I  was  surprised  to  find  the  railway  carriages 
drawn  up  upon  a  tram-road  a  few  steps  from 
our  hotel,  in  a  street  in  the  centre  of  Albany. 
No  fence  of  any  kind  parted  it  from  the 
crowded  thoroughfare.  We  took  our  places  and 
the  train  dashed  onwards  through  the  crowd. 
An  English  railway  carriage  is  generally  di- 
vided into  three  compartments,  or  three  double- 
bodied  coaches,  with  three  or  four  seats  in 
each,  half  of  which  look  towards  the  engine 
and  half  from  it ; — the  knees  of  the  occupants 
meeting  in  the  passage  between  :  in  England, 
each  compartment  is  entered  by  a  door  in  the 
two  sides  which  shut  in  this  passage :  and  the 
several  carriages,  of  three  compartments  each, 


108  THE    WABASH. 

are  hooked  on  to  one  another — no  communi- 
cation being  possible  between  them.  We  had 
entered  the  car,  on  which  we  were  now  tra- 
velling, at  the  end :  a  passage  led  down  the 
centre  from  end  to  end :  on  each  side  of  this 
passage,  were  sofas  of  cut  velvet  large  enough 
to  hold  two  persons  comfortably.  The  backs 
of  the  sofas  were  moveable  on  hinges,  so  that 
a  party  of  four  could  sit  facing  each  other,  or 
they  could  always  be  moved  to  face  or  turn 
from  the  engine.  At  the  end  of  each  sofa, 
was  a  window  in  the  side  of  the  carriage,  with 
glass,  and  Venetian  blind  or  curtain.  Here, 
therefore,  was  no  quartering  of  legs,  since  all 
sat  the  same  way;  no  pushing  past  knees,  as  the 
passage  in  the  centre  gave  ample  space  to  move 
up  and  down,  and  the  seat  on  each  side  held 
only  two  persons,  who  had  a  window  between 
them.  But  there  was  also  a  door  at  each  end 
of  the  passage  leading  in  and  out  of  the  car- 
riage to  the  ground  by  a  double  flight  of  steps; 
and  with  a  little  landing  place,  or  platform  as 
they  called  it,  which  touched  a  similar  plat- 
form at  the  end  of  the  next  carriage,  and  so 
afforded  the  means  of  stepping  from  one  to  the 


1 


CHAP.   IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         109 

other  and  of  passing  entirely  from  one  to  the 
other  end  of  the  train.  People  were  requested 
not  to  stand  on  this  platform,  as  those  who  did 
so  encumbered  the  way  and  might  be  thrown 
down  by  a  jolt  or  sudden  stoppage  :  but  the 
space  was  generally  occupied  by  some  who 
stood  there  to  smoke,  notwithstanding  the  pro- 
hibition. 

"We  had  not  proceeded  far  when  I  observed 
the  guard,  as  we  should  call  him  in  Europe, 
though  here  he  was  distinguished  by  no  dress 
or  badge  of  office,  moving  from  end  to  end 
of  the  train,  and  taking  the  fare  and  giving 
tickets  to  those  who  had  not  had  time  or  in- 
clination to  take  them  before.  Here  was  a 
saving  of  time  :  and  the  man  would  sit  down 
by  the  side  of  any  passenger  for  a  chat,  or  to 
give  information  required.  We  had  not  pro- 
ceeded far  when  I  observed  boys  walking  from 
end  to  end  of  the  train,  offering  iced  water  to 
those  who  wished  for  it ;  others  had  time- 
tables of  the  different  railways  or  steamers 
that  we  should  come  across,  and  cards  of  the 
hotels  which  they  were  engaged  to  recommend 
in  the  different  towns.     One  passenger  came 


110  THE    WABASH. 

up  to  another  near  me  and  seated  himself  be- 
side him,  while  I  heard  him  say  that  he  had 
sought  his  friend  through  the  whole  line  of 
cars,  as  they  are  called,  before  he  found  him 
here.  This  power  of  locomotion  had  evidently 
its  advantages.  I,  too,  got  up  to  study  the 
contrivances  about  me  ;  and  passed  from  one 
carriage  to  the  other.  In  the  corner  of  one  of 
them  an  oblong  space  was  partitioned  off:  I 
opened  the  door  into  it  and  found  myself  in  a 
little  room  neatly  fitted  up  with  chairs,  wash- 
hand  bason  and  ewer,  and — a  watercloset. 
This,  indeed,  was  a  pleasing  discovery ;  as  it 
removed  one  great  difficulty,  which  the  father 
of  eleven  children  could  not  but  have  foreseen, 
in  this  journey  of  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  miles  for  which  we  had  booked  ourselves. 
On  the  English  York  and  London  and  other 
lines,  when  the  train  stopped  for  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  for  refreshment,  I  had  observed  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  women  all  first  rushing,  after 
five  hours'  confinement,  to  the  little  space  set 
apart  for  them,  and  which  might  accommo- 
date half  a  dozen  at  a  time  :  I  had  seen  the 
anxious  glances  of  those  who  were  unable  to 


CHAP.  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.    Ill 

gain  admission  there  while  they  were  fainting 
for  the  food  which  they  had  deferred  taking : 
I  had  seen  their  look  of  suffering  as  the  bell 
rang  while  they  were  still  detained  outside 
the  door ;  and  I  had  heard  some  expostulate 
angrily  with  the  guard  and  dare  him  to  move 
the  train,  while  they  and  the  many  around 
them  were  excluded  from  the  still  closed  door 
and  overcrowded  precincts  : — they  would  start 
again  without  refreshment,  but  the  other,  they 
said,  they  would  not  forego  !  And  this  is 
English  delicacy  !  And  I  shall  be  reproached 
for  describing  on  paper  what  every  man  who 
travels  on  an  English  railway  witnesses  with 
his  own  eyes  ;  what  every  woman  suffers  from 
and  blushes  for.     Faugh  ! 

Each  of  the  cars  I  now  inspected  contained 
from  ten  to  twenty  seats  on  each  side  of  the 
passage  ;  giving,  therefore,  accommodation  to 
from  forty  to  eighty  travellers.  Not  half  of 
the  places  were  engaged.  The  occupants  were 
of  every  class  above  that  of  labourers ;  for  a 
division  of  classes  in  a  railway  train,  would 
be  incompatible  with  American  feelings  :  they 
have,  indeed,  express  trains  and  mail  trains, 


112  THE    WABASH. 

but  the  fares  on  all  are  the  same  :  and  their 
only  way  of  enabling  the  poorer  citizens  to  avail 
themselves  of  railroads  without  shocking  their 
own  and  the  public  sense  of  decorous  equality, 
has  been  by  the  invention  of  what  they  call 
"  emigrant  trains".  These  are  cheaper  and 
slower,  and  perform,  for  example,  in  twenty- 
six  hours  the  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
miles  which  we,  in  the  express  train,  were  now 
doing  in  ten  hours.  Emigrants  do  not  pretend, 
as  yet,  to  an  equality  with  other  citizens  ;  and 
public  feeling  does  not  think  them  insulted  by 
having  a  cheaper,  a  distinct  train  provided  for 
them.  If  citizens  please  to  avail  themselves  of 
it,  that  is  their  own  affair  :  they  are  supposed 
to  do  so  for  their  own  convenience,  not  as 
acknowledging  any  inferiority ! 

And  yet,  from  the  motley  assemblage  we  met 
in  these  railway  cars,  we  never  experienced  the 
slightest  annoyance.  When  there  was  other 
space,  no  one  intruded  into  a  sofa  which  had 
already  one  occupant.  Americans  are  cleaner 
in  their  linen  and  clothes  than  Europeans;  and 
though  their  sentiments  of  independence  and 
common  citizenship,  give  them  a  manner  and 


CHAP.   IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         113 

tone  of  equality,  yet  they  also  give  them  a 
sentiment  of  self-respect  which  prevents  them 
doing  what  would  lower  them  in  public  opi- 
nion. During  all  this  day's  journey,  I  saw, 
besides  the  person  who  collected  fares  and 
tickets  in  the  carriages,  no  railway  official  in 
apparent  authority,  no  policeman  :  —  every 
American  seems  to  consider  himself  interested 
in  the  preservation  of  order.  A  moral  Lynch 
law  governs  the  intercourse  of  all :  for  all 
being,  more  or  less,  dependent  upon  the  pub- 
lic opinion  of  all,  no  class  can  afford  to  de- 
spise the  public  opinion  of  another  class.  As 
one  proof  of  this  general  sentiment,  I  record 
that  a  rope  passes  from  each  car  communicat- 
ing with  a  bell  beside  the  driver,  so  that  any 
passenger  may  ring  it  in  case  of  illness  or 
accident.  When  such  a  contrivance  has  been 
suggested  for  English  railway  carriages,  the 
objection  has  always  been  that  the  train  would 
be  constantly  stopped  by  the  whim  or  the 
malice  of  silly  or  mischievous  travellers. 

But,  meanwhile,  our  cars  are  rattling  for- 
wards, with  no  great  motion,  and  at  a  fair 
pace  ;  for  although  our  average  speed  for  the 


114  THE    WABASH. 

three  hundred  and  twenty-eight  miles  does 
not  exceed  twenty-eight  miles  an  hour,  yet 
that  speed,  when  moving,  is,  in  reality,  much 
greater,  because  our  train  makes  so  many 
stoppages  to  take  in  passengers  and  for  re- 
freshment. Leaving  the  glorious  Hudson 
River  at  Albany,  we  had  soon  crossed  over  to 
the  banks  of  the  romantic  Mohawk  ;  and,  for 
miles,  the  railway  and  the  great  Erie  canal 
followed  all  its  windings  amid  those  pictu- 
resque pine- covered  rocks.  The  inhabited 
country  might  be  a  mere  track  through  a 
desert :  but  yet  the  track  was  all  alive.  Rail- 
road, canal,  aqueducts,  saw-mills,  and  smiling 
villages,  connected  together  by  log-houses  and 
chalets,  gave  the  whole  a  look  of  perhaps 
greater  animation,  than  can  be  found  in  many 
an  old  settled  country  ;  as  a  spot  of  ground,  in 
which  bricklayers  and  carpenters  are  building 
a  house,  swarms  with  activity  much  more  than 
the  same  space  when  the  quietly  inhabited 
house  is  secluded  in  its  own  flower  garden. 
About  Little  Falls,  a  rising  village  of  some 
three  thousand  souls,  the  scenery  is  quite 
Swiss :  homely  Swiss  scenery  without  the  Alps. 


CHAP.   IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.        115 

Indeed,  the  whole  of  this  line  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mohawk  river,  for  about  one  hundred 
miles,  would  be  considered  beautiful  or  very 
pleasing  in  any  country.  What,  then,  must 
it  have  seemed  to  us  to  whom  everything 
around  had  the  additional  charm  of  novelty  ! 

We  passed  through  Frankfort,  through  Utica ; 
we  passed  through  Rome  even ;  and  thought  its 
streets  and  squares  so  wide,  and  laid  out  and 
rising  with  so  much  regularity,  as  to  shame 
its  crumbling  historic  prototype  ;  we  passed 
Oneida,  with  a  classical  sound  of  its  own,  far 
dearer,  to  the  European  traveller  in  America, 
than  any  sham  reminiscence  of  ancient  Eu- 
rope ;  and  we  came  on  to  Syracuse.  The 
train  dashed,  as  usual,  into  the  middle  of  the 
town,  and  stopped  there.  Waiters,  in  front  of 
half-a-dozen  hotels,  were  ringing  their  dinner 
bells  in  the  crowded  street ;  we  went  into  that 
which  we  deemed  most  inviting,  and  found  an 
excellent  dinner,  which  we  were  allowed  am- 
ple time  to  eat,  and  for  which  I  was  charged 
four  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents,  or  about 
eighteen  pence  a  head. 

At   Syracuse,  another    canal   and   railroad 


116  THE    WABASH. 

branched  off  to  Oswego,  on  Lake  Ontario  ;  we 
followed  our  line  due  west,  past  the  beautiful 
village  of  Auburn,  on  Lake  Owasco,  and  over 
the  sunny  bosom  of  the  Cayuga  Lake.  I  say 
over  it,  for  the  railroad  here  cut  across  the 
northern  end  of  it,  on  a  bridge  about  a  mile 
and  a  quarter  long,  and  gave  us  a  view  of 
scenery  which  reminded  me  strongly  of  that 
of  the  Lake  of  Garda,  but  was  far  more  beau- 
tiful. The  water  was  strangely  transparent ; 
and  when  we  passed,  it  slept  waveless  amid  its 
smiling,  well- cultivated  shores,  and  reflected  a 
sun  as  bright  as  any  in  Italy.  This  lake  is 
about  forty  miles  long,  and  from  one  to  four 
miles  broad,  and  is  so  deep,  that  it  never 
freezes  even  in  the  coldest  winters.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  country  more 
beautiful,  more  pleasingly  attractive,  than 
the  shores  of  these  five  lakes  of  Skaneteles, 
Owasco,  Cayuga,  Seneca,  and  Canandaigua ; 
lovely  sheets  of  water,  all  of  them  lying  pa- 
rallel to  one  another  on  the  northern  ridge  of 
the  high  ground  between  the  ocean  and  the 
great  lakes,  where  it  slopes  down  towards  Lake 
Ontario.     We  looked  at   all   these  charming 


CHAP.   IT. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.         117 

valleys  and  gently  sloping  hills,  and  fancied  a 
home  for  our  sons  amongst  them ;  but  I  had 
determined  to  choose  a  warmer  climate  than 
this  is  in  the  winter,  and  to  go  into  one  of  the 
western  states,  where  the  best  of  the  land 
should  not  be  already  bought  up.  Still,  the 
prospect  of  founding  a  home  amid  similar 
scenery,  gave  it  an  additional  interest  in  our 
eyes. 

Leaving,  therefore,  Lake  Ontario  on  our 
right  hand,  we  passed,  in  succession,  the 
northern  extremities  of  these  five  beautiful 
pieces  of  water,  dotted  with  steamers  and 
other  boats,  and  hastened  through  the  flourish- 
ing villages  on  their  banks.  At  the  outlet  of 
each,  towards  Ontario,  is  a  water-power,  of 
which  the  greatest  use  is  made  ;  grist  mills,  and 
saw  mills,  and  tanneries  evince  the  mechanical 
industry  of  the  inhabitants.  We  passed 
through  Waterloo,  and  enjoyed  some  refresh- 
ing lemonade  at  Geneva ;  I  record  these 
names  from  their  amusing  absurdity.  Why 
will  not  Americans  have  a  country  of  their 
own,  instead  of  trying  to  pass  it  off  as  a  bastard 
Europe  ?    On,  past  the  beautiful  lake  of  Seneca, 


118  THE    WABASH. 

we  sped  to  the  still  more  charming  neighbour- 
hood of  Canandaigua  Lake  ;  whose  deep  clear 
waters,  never  frozen  over,  though  lying  amid 
high  grounds,  teem  with  fish.  In  this  neigh- 
bourhood, is  one  of  those  natural  phenomena, 
so  frequent  in  America,  called  the  Burning 
spring  ;  gas  bubbles  up  through  the  water  of  a 
small  stream,  or  through  the  snow  that  covers 
it  in  winter ;  and,  when  a  light  has  been 
applied,  burns  steadily  down  to  the  snow  or 
the  water's  edge.  In  very  cold  weather,  tubes 
of  ice  are  formed  round  the  several  jets  of  gas, 
which,  if  then  lighted,  seems  to  have  been 
conducted  by  art  into  these  beautiful  ice-cry- 
stal candelabras. 

The  whole  of  New  York  state  abounds  with 
mineral  springs,  which  are  more  or  less  resorted 
to.  Many  of  them  are  said  to  arise  in  most 
romantic  scenery. 

We  passed  through  Rochester,  a  town,  in 
1850,  of  thirty- seven  thousand  inhabitants  ;  as 
it  had  then  doubled  its  population  in  the  pre- 
ceding ten  years,  it  is  impossible  to  say  what 
it  may  be  now.  It  is  built  on  the  Genessee 
river ;  and  owes  its  prosperity  to  the  immense 


CHAP.  IV. RIVER  AND  RAILROAD.    119 

water-power  which  thus  enables  it  to  manu- 
facture daily  five  thousand  of  those  barrels  of 
flour  which,  thence  conveyed  by  Lake  Ontario 
and  the  Saint  Lawrence,  are  introduced  into 
England  free  of  duty ;  a  manufactured  article 
with  which  our  corn  growers  and  our  millers 
have  to  compete.  Import  the  unground  grain, 
if  ye  will,  duty  free  ;  but  flour  is  no  longer  a 
raw  material,  and  should  be  subject  to  the 
same  duties  as  are  paid  by  other  manufactured 
goods.  Railroads  and  canals  on  every  side 
extend  the  commerce  and  the  prosperity  of 
Rochester. 

We  did  not  pause  to  visit  the  famous  Genes- 
see  Falls  ;  but  kept  our  places  in  our  cars,  and 
arrived  at  half-past  seven  o'clock  at  Buffalo  ; 
tired,  indeed,  but  delighted  with  this  our  first 
incursion  into  the  mainland  of  America. 


CHAPTER  V. 


NIAGARA   FALLS. 

The  "  gals."— Buffalo.— The  churches.— St.  Patrick's  church. 
The  lapdog. — The  railway  accident. — The  runaway  slave. — 
Roasting  and  shooting  niggers. — Niagara  falls. — Goat  or 
Iris  island. — The  Horseshoe  Fall.— Fishing.— The  tower.— 
The  American  Falls. — Mr.  Geo.  W.  Sims  and  the  ferry  — 
Canadian  and  American  manners. — The  lost  hat. — Canadian 
and  American  prosperity. 

"  Buffalo  gals  !  can't  ye  come  out  to-night, 
Can't  ye  come  out  to-night,  can't  ye  come  out  to-night  1 
Buffalo  gals  !  can't  ye  come  out  to  night, 
And  dance  by  de  light  of  de  moon  !" 

How  little  T  thought,  only  a  few  months  ago, 
when  I  used  to  sing  these  unmeaning  words  to 
their  beautiful  air,  that  I  should  ever  visit  the 
distant  Indian  village  to  which  they  referred : 
— a  distant  Indian  village,  I  imagined  it,  some- 
where in  the  backwoods,  but  I  did  not  know 
where  ;  and  I  pictured  it  to  myself  composed 
of  wigwams,  built  of  wood,  and  overshadowed 
by  eternal  forests  beside  one  of  those  great  in- 
land seas  of  America  which  Europeans  scarcely 


CHAP     V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  121 

know  by  name  !  Such  were  my  musings  as? 
passing  from  the  crowded  wharves  and  canals 
of  Lower  Buffalo,  I  sauntered  up  a  handsome 
street,  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  broad  and 
two  miles  long,  and,  thence,  to  the  more  re- 
tired streets  and  squares  on  the  higher  ground. 
Here  I  overlooked  the  broad  Lake  of  Erie  at 
my  feet ;  the  green  hills  of  Canada  before  me  ; 
and,  at  the  distance  of  a  few  miles  on  my  right 
hand,  the  far-stretching  expanse  of  Lake  On- 
tario. It  was  a  beautiful  morning  ;  the  sun 
shone  brightly  athwart  the  clouds  that,  ever 
and  anon,  sent  down  slight  showers  to  wet  and 
refreshen  the  air.  The  raindrops  danced  and 
glistened  on  the  laburnum  and  acacia  blos- 
soms and  the  trellised  roses  that  peeped  over 
the  garden  walls  that  enclosed  a  little  space 
in  front  of  almost  every  house.  We  had  staid 
here  to  rest  on  the  preceding  day  ;  and,  on  this, 
Whit-Sunday,  we  were  seeking  out  a  place  of 
Catholic  worship. 

And  here,  I  first  observed  the  systematic 
grouping  of  churches  which  seems  to  obtain 
almost  everywhere  in  the  United  States.  You 
may  pass  a  village,  perhaps,  though  rarely,  that 


122  THE    WABASH. 

that  has  no  church  at  all ;  but  if  it  has  one, 
it  will  certainly  have  four.  In  the  towns, 
churches  stand  in  groups  of  four,  as  near  to- 
gether as  possible.  It  is  the  spirit  of  competi- 
tion. As  one  lawyer  in  a  village  always  makes 
work  for  two,  so  does  one  sectarian  preacher 
provoke  a  religious  feeling  which  others  are 
required  to  satisfy  with  opposing  doctrines. 

The  Catholic  churches  do  not  appear  to  form 
part  of  these  groups.  I  discovered  that  Buf- 
falo was  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  and  contained 
four  English  and  Irish,  one  French  and  two 
German  Catholic  churches.  I  made  my  way  to 
St.  Patrick's — then  the  largest  church,  though 
a  magnificent  cathedral  was  being  raised  near 
it.  The  building  was  crowded  —  almost  to 
suffocation.  The  congregation  appeared  very 
respectable : — all  were  very  clean  and  well- 
dressed.  Yet  I  was  told  that  almost  all  were 
Irish  emigrants  escaped  from  starvation  and 
forced  idleness  at  home.  I  lingered  about  the 
door,  as  the  congregation  went  in  and  came 
out ;  yet,  amongst  three  thousands  of  Irish, 
not  one  asked  for  alms  ! 

The  preacher's  Irish  accent  declared  his  ori- 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  123 

gin,  although  he  had  been  in  the  United  States 
long  enough  to  acquire  American  phraseology: 
for  example  ;  while  recommending  good  will 
and  amity  amongst  nations,  he  told  them  not 
to  imitate  "  Balaak  canvassing  Balaam  to  curse 
the  Israelites".  The  word  ':  canvassing",  in 
such  a  sense,  must  have  been  picked  up  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic  !  Then,  referring  to 
the  festival  of  the  day,  the  preacher  gave  us 
a  very  tolerable  burst  of  declamation  on  the 
universality  and  uniformity  of  his  faith  :  assur- 
ing the  poor  wanderers  from  a  distant  land 
that,  as  they  had  found  the  same  religion  at 
Buffalo,  so,  "  far  as  the  winds  blow  or  the 
waters  roll,  it  is  to  be  found  the  same  every- 
where as  here." 

The  number  of  our  pets  was  lessening.  Ano- 
ther of  our  canary  birds  died  at  Buffalo.  Our 
poor  little  dog  had  been  ailing  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  voyage  out ;  and  though  it 
had  seemed  to  recover  at  times,  so  as  to  excite 
the  admiration  of  many  who  again  stopped  us 
here  offering  to  buy  it  (which  seems,  in  this 
country,  to  be  thought  a  delicate,  complimen- 
tary way   of  expressing   admiration),  it  now 


124  THE    WABASH. 

grew  much  worse  and  died  in  the  course  of 
this  night.  My  wife  and  children  happily  fore- 
saw not  the  greater  trials  they  were  to  under- 
go ;  and  wrere  much  afflicted  by  this  loss  of 
another  of  their  pets.  A  lap-dog  had  died  in 
my  family  at  Florence  twenty  years  before ; 
and  its  mistress,  an  elderly  lady  who  sat  up 
with  it,  had  declared  that,  the  instant  her  dog 
expired,  the  night  lamp  had  suddenly  gone  out! 
Carlo  was  buried  in  the  garden  of  the  Hotel 
Fetherstonhaugh  at  Florence :  little  I  then 
thought  that,  twenty  years  later,  I  should  see 
another  pet  lap-dog  taken  from  my  apartment 
and  buried  in  the  garden  of  the  Exchange 
Hotel  at  Buffalo  ! 

This  was  a  tolerable  inn  close  to  the  railway 
station  (which  had  been  its  recommendation 
to  me),  or  close,  rather,  to  the  point  where  the 
Rochester  Railway  runs  into  the  town.  We 
Avitnessed  a  sad  consequence  of  the  unen- 
closed, unguarded  state  of  these  precincts : — 
a  little  boy  had  been  playing  and  clambering 
about  on  one  of  the  cars,  when  it  was  put  in 
motion.  He  fell,  and  the  wheels  went  over 
both  his  thighs.     The  poor  child  was  carried 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  125 

to  our  hotel,  and  laid  in  a  lower  room  :  a  sur- 
geon attended,  and  much  sympathy  seemed  to 
be  felt  for  him.  But  it  was  evidently  impos- 
sible to  save  his  life ;  and  he  died  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  His  poor  mother  was  in  a  state 
of  distress  that  may  be  imagined  : — a  distress 
aggravated  by  the  refusal  of  the  surgeon  to 
permit  her  to  see  her  child,  lest  the  interview 
should  agitate  him.     Cruel  caution  to  both  ! 

The  mother  was  standing  outside  the  door ; 
while  one  of  my  sons,  who  was  passing  the  open 
window,  heard  the  little  sufferer  cry  "  Mother! 
mother  !  why  don't  you  come  to  me  ?" 

"  She  will  come  to-morrow",  some  one  said 
soothingly  ;  "  but  it  would  make  you  worse  if 
she  came  to  night." 

"  I  don't  care  if  I  am  worse",  he  cried  ;  "  for 
if  I  die,  I  shall  go  to  heaven.  But  I  want  to 
see  mother  ! " 

Cruel  caution,  indeed ;  which,  under  no 
circumstance,  could  avail  to  save  life ;  and  the 
propriety  of  which  would  be  very  doubtful, 
even  if  it  were  certain  to  have  the  desired 
effect.  \Yoe  to  those  who  thrust  themselves 
between  relatives  on  their  death-bed  !     Woe 


126  THE    WABASH. 

to  those  who  conceal  their  condition  from  the 
dying,  whatever  may  be  the  danger  of  reveal- 
ing it  i 

A  great  deal  of  excitement  existed  at  this 
time  in  Buffalo,  not  only  amongst  what  is 
called  "  the  coloured  population",  but  also 
amongst  the  "  whites";  and,  from  Buffalo,  ex- 
tended through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
United  States.  New  York  is  a  free  state — 
that  is  to  say,  it  permits  not  its  citizens  to 
possess  slaves  within  its  boundaries  ;  nor  could 
any  fugitive  slave  be  pursued  and  recovered 
in  it  until  a  general  law,  passed  in  the  pre- 
ceding year,  authorised  slave  owners  from 
slave  states,  not  only  to  follow  and  seize  their 
runaways  in  the  territory  of  free  states,  but, 
also,  compelled  all  private  citizens  and  autho- 
rities in  free  states  to  assist  in  capturing  and 
reconducting  them  to  their  owners  when  called 
upon  to  do  so.  A  fugitive  slave,  in  fact,  was 
looked  upon  in  the  same  light  as  a  thief  who 
had  run  away  with  his  master's  property,  and 
all  the  confederation  of  friendly  states  consti- 
tuting the  Union,  were  called  upon  to  aid  in 
arresting   the  robber.      It  was   in  vain    that 


CHAP.   V. —  NIAGARA   FALLS.  127 

citizens  of  free  states  declared  that  slavery 
was  as  repugnant  to  them  as  to  the  feelings  of 
Englishmen,  and  protested  against  being  made 
to  do  violence  to  those  feelings  by  aiding  in 
re-enslaving  a  fellow  creature  who  had  fled 
amongst  them  for  protection.  They  were  re- 
minded that,  by  the  very  first  principles  of  the 
federative  union,  every  state  was  independent 
as  to  its  own  internal  legislation,  and  that  the 
rules  of  goodfellowship  required  that  each 
should  assist  the  other  in  carrying  out  that 
legislation,  and  in  the  restoration  of  "  lost, 
strayed,  or  stolen"  property-  I  myself  could 
not  quite  see  how  one  position  necessarily  fol- 
lowed from  the  other  :  obligations  exist,  by 
treaty,  between  England  and  the  United  States, 
but  England  does  not  therefore  surrender  all 
slaves  who  may  have  escaped  to  Canada.  How- 
ever, I  confine  myself  now  to  facts,  and  return 
to  the  cause  of  the  excitement  at  Buffalo. 

A  man  named  Rust  had  been  just  sent  there 
by  Mr.  George  H.  Moore  of  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky, in  search  of  a  slave  named  Daniels, 
whom  the  said  Mr.  Moore  claimed  as  his  pro- 
perty.    Rust,  having  found  out  that  Daniels 


1*28  THE  WABASH. 

was  living  as  cook  on  board  one  of  the  Erie 
steam-boats,  went  on  deck  and  had  him  called 
up  from  below.  Daniels,  suspecting  no  harm, 
was  ascending  the  ladder  to  come  on  deck, 
when  "Rust  caught  up  a  billet  of  wood  that 
lay  ready  for  the  furnace,  struck  him  with  it 
on  the  back  of  his  head  just  as  it  emerged 
from  below,  and  knocked  him  down  the  ladder. 
He  fell  upon  the  hot  stove  in  the  cook's  room, 
where  he  lay  senseless,  bleeding  and  burning, 
until  he  was  taken  off,  "  badly  fried,  and  with 
the  blood  running  from  his  nose,  mouth  and 
ears."  Thus  helpless  and  stu pitied,  he  wTas 
carried  before  Mr.  Commissioner  Henry  K. 
Smith,  before  whom  it  was  proved,  even  by 
the  witnesses  for  the  claimant,  that  Daniels 
had  been  repeatedly  sent  by  said  claimant  on 
his  own  business  into  the  free  state  of  Ohio, 
and  that  he  had  come  away  from  Ohio,  and 
not  from  Kentucky,  to  Buffalo  ;  so  that,  it 
was  asserted,  he  could  not  be  said  to  have 
escaped  from  a  slave  state.  It  was  declared 
that  this  interpretation  of  the  wording  of  the 
law  had  been  sanctioned  by  the  highest  tri- 
bunals.    Mr.  Commissioner   Smith,  however, 


CHAP.   V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  129 

chose  to  read  it  differently,  and  decided  against 
the  black.  But  his  owner  had  no  predilection 
for  Daniels :  he  only  wished  for  the  value  of 
his  property :  and  when  lawyer  Talcroft,  on 
the  part  of  the  claimant,  suggested  that  the 
condemned  slave  should  be  sent  to  prison 
while  a  telegraphic  message  was  forwarded  to 
Kentucky  to  inquire  at  what  price  Mr.  Moore 
would  sell  him,  in  case  white  sympathisers 
and  free  blacks  in  Buffalo  should  be  able  and 
willing  to  ransom  him,  and  when  he  had  ad- 
vised free  negroes  in  the  court  to  go  quietly 
home  and  wait  for  the  reply,  Mr.  Commissioner 
Smith  had  backed  the  advice  in  these  words : 
"  And  I  also  have  a  few  words  to  say  to  the 
coloured  people  here.  If  there  is  no  telegraph 
sent  at  all,  that  slave  shall  go  back  to  his 
master,  according  to  my  decision ;  and  if  you 
dare  to  oppose  that  decision  by  force,  you  ivill 

be  SHOT  DOWN." 

It  may  readily  be  supposed  that  great  irri- 
tation and  excitement  prevailed  at  Buffalo 
amongst  all  classes  while  this  was  going  on. 
Another  magistrate  was  appealed  to,  and  the 
slave-catcher,  Rust,  was  bound  over  for  trial, 


130  THE  WABASH. 

in  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  to  answer 
a  charge  of  assault  and  battery,  for  having 
stricken  down  the  slave  with  a  piece  of  wood. 
Daniels,  however,  still  lay  in  jail. 

On  Monday  morning,  we  started  in  railway 
cars,  from  the  centre  of  one  of  the  busiest 
streets  in  the  town,  to  go  to  Niagara  Falls, 
distant  twenty-two  miles.  The  road  skirts 
the  shore  of  Niagara  river,  which  here  is  about 
three  miles  broad,  winding  slowly  on  through 
unpicturesque  scenery,  and  amongst  several 
uninteresting  islands.  Be  it  remembered,  that 
this  river  is  the  outlet  towards  the  sea  of  all 
the  waters  of  Lake  Erie,  Lake  Huron,  Lake 
Michigan,  and  Lake  Superior,  which  cover 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square 
miles,  and  are  supposed  to  contain  nearly  one 
half  of  the  fresh  water  on  the  surface  of  the 
globe.  Lazily  it  went  along,  between  its  low 
and  rather  marshy  banks.   We  neared  Niagara. 

Boys  and  waiters  passed  through  the  cars 
recommending  different  hotels  ;  for  Niagara 
Falls  is  a  holiday  place  for  the  Buffaloes,  as,  I 
presume,  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  call  them- 
selves :    handbills,  like    those  which    Messrs. 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  131 

Moses  throw  into  London  omnibusses  and 
cabs,  came  flying  in  at  the  windows.  I  copy 
one  of  them  :  — 

FERRY  AT  THE  FALLS  ! 

This  ferry,  immediately  at  the  foot  of  the  great  cataract, 
where  the  spectator  has  in  crossing,  the  whole  scene  of  falling 
water  before  him  in  all  its  majesty  and  power,  is  in  its  accus- 
tomed order  for  the  accommodation  of  the  public. 

The  Ferry  is  provided  with  spacious  open  barges,  which 
carry  with  entire  safety  20  to  30  passengers  each,  and  the 
crossing  is  accomplished  in  about  five  minutes.  The  landing 
place  is  reached  by  a  flight  of  covered  stairs,  290  in  number, 
down  the  bank,  or  by  a  parallel  inclined  plane,  3G0  feet  long, 
on  which  Cars  are  moved  by  stationary  Water  Power. 

Visitors  wishing  to  reach  the  Falls  most  expeditiously  and 
economically,  should  at  once,  on  the  arrival  of  the  morning 
Train  from  Buffalo,  at  half-past  ten,  proceed  directly  down  the 
street  in  which  the  Cars  stop,  passing  by  the  Buffalo  Depot, 
through  the  Grove  to  the  Ferry,  distant  less  than  a  five  mi- 
nutes walk.  Not  a  moment  should  be  lost,  for  the  sun  soon 
attains  an  elevation  which  deprives  the  scene  of  one  of  its  most 

STRIKING    BEAUTIES, 
THE 

MORNING    RAINBOW. 
In  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  they  stand  on  the  famed 

TABLE    ROCK,    ON    THE    BRITISH    SHORE. 

One  hour  will  suffice  to  make  the  whole  trip,  crossing  and 
returning,  and  allow  the  visitor  an  half  hour  on  the  Table. 
Indeed  he  may  pass  nearly  an  hour  tbere  and  be  back  at  his 
hotel,  on  this  side,  by  noon.  Or,  if  he  prefers,  he  may  take  a 
Carriage  from  Table  Rock,  directly  to  the  Suspension  Bridge, 


132  THE  WABASH. 

after  passing  which  to  the  American  shore,  he  can  return  to 
the  Village  by  a  like  conveyance. 

Fare  to  Canada,  including  the  use  of  the  descending  Car  or 
Steps,  as  may  be  preferred,  18  3-4  cents.  Freight  and  Baggage 
passed  with  perfect  facility,  at  low  rates. 

The  safety  of  this  Ferry  is  best  appreciated  from  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  in  use  more  than  40  years — formerly  with  very 
light  boats,  and  even  small  canoes,  and  that  not  a  human  life 
has  been  lost  in  passing  it.  On  reaching  the  Canada  shore,  the 
bank  is  there  ascended  by  a  free  wagon  road,  at  the  foot  of 
which  Carriages  are  always  in  waiting. 

The  subscriber  having  passed  his  whole  life  at  this  place,  is 

prepared  and  will   be  happy  to  impart  any  local  information 

that  may  be  desired. 

Geo.  W.  Sims. 

At  the  Ferry,  American  Shore. 

£§T  P.S. — The  use  of  the  great  Staircase  and  grounds  ad- 
jacent is  free  to  Visitors. 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  1851. 

It  will  be  observed  that,  according  to  George 
W.  Sims,  the  Ferry  is  the  object  most  worth 
visiting  at  Niagara.  So  did  others  particularly 
recommend  other  localities,  in  which  they 
themselves  were  interested.  We  descended 
from  the  cars,  disregarding  them  all.  Dis- 
regarding, also,  the  many  who  offered  them- 
selves as  guides,  we  crossed  the  street,  and 
followed  the  press  of  other  passengers  who, 
we  thought,  must  be  like  us,  visitors  to  the 
world- wonder.     They  fell  off  into  the  hotels, 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  133 

to  the  right  and  to  the  left ;  thus  showing  that 
they  were  only  holiday  people  from  Buffalo. 
We  pursued  our  solitary  way  towards  the  river. 
Now,  here,  although  we  were  but  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  cascade,  I  cannot  say  that  we 
heard  those  sounds  like  distant  thunder  which 
deafen  many  travellers  to  Niagara,  almost 
from  the  time  they  have  left  Albany.  At  the 
end  of  the  street,  we  saw  trees,  and  a  rush  of 
water.  Amongst  stones  and  rocks,  and  little 
islands,  through  which  two  or  three  solitary 
firs  struck  their  naked  roots  into  the  stones 
beneath,  they  rushed ;  foaming  and  boiling, 
and  splashing,  and  eddying.  A  rustic  bridge 
spanned  them,  resting  upon  piers  of  jagged 
stone.  We  stood  on  the  centre  of  it,  and  I 
asked  my  children  what  they  thought  of 
Niagara. 

They  were  disappointed.  These  were  very 
beautiful ;  but  they  thought  there  wTas  a 
cataract. 

These  were  the  Eapids  on  the  American 
side.  Listen  now  to  the  dull  booming  sound 
a-head ! 

At  the  end  of  the  bridge,  on  a  little  island 


134  THE  WABASH. 

called  Bath  Island,  we  were  called  upon  to  pay 
a  toll,  twenty-five  cents  for  each  person : — for 
one  visit  1  This  would  free  us  for  the  whole 
season  ;  and  the  toll-taker  said  we  could  not 
tell  how  often  we  might  return  to  it.  Was  it 
prophecy  or  experience  that  inspired  him'? .... 

With  other  twenty-five  cents,  I  bought 
from  him  a  guide  book  with  a  map ;  and  so, 
independent  of  chattering  guides  which  this 
toll  happily  kept  back,  we  crossed  over  another 
smaller  bridge,  and  stood  upon  Goat  Island ; 
since  denominated  by  these  gentry,  in  the 
hope  of  making  Niagara  more  attractive,  Iris 
Island. 

Delightful  were  the  natural  paths  amongst 
the  brambles  and  underwood,  or  on  the  green 
grass  shaded  by  lofty  oak  trees,  the  immemorial 
forest  of  Goat  Island !  Our  children  were 
overjoyed  with  the  wild  gooseberries  they 
picked,  and  with  the  fresh  natural  feeling  of 
this  their  first  country  walk  since  they  had 
left  Talence  to  embark  on  the  Kate  Hunter. 
We  pursued  our  walk  to  the  right,  and, skirting 
the  southern  side  of  the  island,  saw  down  below 
us,  and  athwart  the  overhanging  boughs,  the 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  135 

American  Rapids  still  boiling  onwards,  onwards 
in  their  headlong  career. 

A  path  struck  off  to  the  left,  from  whence 
the  sound  came  louder  and  louder.  We  turned 
into  it  and  soon  emerged  on  the  other  side  of 
the  island. 

The  Great  Horseshoe  Fall  was  close  before  us. 

Nearer — nearer  came  the  waters. 

Majestic,  in  the  majesty  with  which  they 
had  recovered  themselves  after  the  hurrying 
and  chafing  of  the  rapids  on  this  the  Canadian 
side,  on — on  they  come ;  a  peaceful,  though 
rapid,  river.  The  channel  is  here  about 
half-a-mile  broad  ;  and  onwards — onwards 
come  the  overflow  of  half  the  fresh  waters  on 
the  globe.  A  rapid  and  peaceful  river,  on  they 
come.  Suddenly  the  earth,  the  solid  rock -bed, 
fails  beneath  them.  They  spring  forwards 
unsupported.  The  sun  glances  through  them  ; 
and  they  gleam  with  hues  more  than  any 
emerald  bright.  For  a  moment,  they  gleam  ; 
and  then,  down — down — down  they  go.  A 
cauldron  of  froth  and  spray  receives  them. 
Clouds  of  white  foam  uprise  from  the  rock- 
girt  pit  below,  and    hide  whither    they  are 


136  THE  WABASH. 

gone,  and  what  has  become  of  them.  But 
there  again — lower  clown  still — one  hundred 
and  sixty  feet  below  the  ledge  from  which 
they  had  sprung,  there  again  they  emerge  from 
the  foam-clouds ;  dark  blue,  almost  angry 
black,  though  breaking  occasionally  into  short, 
curling,  flashing  waves — on  they  go  indignant, 
on  they  hurry,  they  roll,  they  race  from  the 
scene  of  their  discomfiture.  They  dig  them- 
selves a  channel  three  hundred  feet  deep  below 
their  own  surface  ;  and  onwards,  in  that  wild 
but  narrow  ravine,  between  those  close  over- 
hanging rocks,  onwards  they  hurry,  they  roll, 
they  race  from  the  scene  of  their  discomfiture. 
But  is  it  all  over  ?  No :  not  so.  Look 
above.  There  where  ye  marked  them  first 
come  on  majestically  slow  ;  there  where  the 
rock-bed,  cut  away  in  the  centre  in  the  shape 
of  a  segment  of  a  circle,  or  of  a  horse-shoe, 
fails  beneath  them ;  there  where  transparent, 
emerald-green,  they  leapt  from  the  precipice 
and  fell  down — down  into  the  foam-cauldron 
below ;  there  onwards,  onwards  still  they  come 
in  their  majesty  ;  there  they  leap  :  there  they 
fall.     A  sentiment  of  infinitude,  of  eternitv, 


CHAP.  V. — NIAGARA  FALLS.  137 

oppresses  the  mind.  Onwards  they  ever  come  ; 
down,  down  they  ever  fall.  So  have  they 
done  since  the  world  was  made  ;  so  will  they 
continue  to  do  while  the  world  endures. 

"  The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  upon  the  waters : 
the  God  of  majesty  speaketh  in  the  thunder : 
the  earth  trembled  and  shook :  the  Lord  ruleth 
the  floods :  the  Lord  is  king  for  ever." 

Steps,  called  Biddler's  stairs,  lead  down  from 
Goat  Island  to  the  foot  of  the  cascade,  where 
the  water  first  emerges  from  its  seething  foam- 
cauldron.  Here  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  finest 
fishing  places  in  the  world.  I  can  well  believe 
it.  What  great  fish,  that  could  come  and 
tumble  about  in  such  a  scene :  diving  down 
three  hundred  feet  among  the  blue  waters,  or 
leaping  up  into  the  foam-cloud :  battling  in 
the  current,  and  triumphing  over  the  broken 
waters, — what  great  fish,  that  could  come  here, 
would  mope,  sleepily,  in  any  other  pool  ?  But 
it  must  be  a  big  fish  to  enjoy  this  turmoil ! 
What  fins,  what  a  tail  he  must  have  to  divide 
and  lash  the  whirling  waves ! 

In  the  water,  at  some  distance  from  the 
land,  above  the  cascade,  just  at  the  edge  of 


138  THE  WABASH. 

the  rock  before  it  breaks  away  under  the  river 
bed,  a  tower  is  built  nearly  fifty  feet  high. 
A  rude  bridge,  resting  upon  not  very  steady 
natural  piers  of  rock,  leads  to  it  from  the 
island.  We  felt  nervous  as  our  children 
crossed  it :  for  we  were  all  aware,  that,  should 
any  one  stumble  on  the  rude  planking,  or  fall 
through  the  open  rails,  nothing  could  save 
him  from  being  hurried  into  the  gulf  below. 
We  went  to  the  top  of  the  tower  by  a  flight  of 
easy  steps,  and  there  found  an  open  balus- 
trade, from  which  we  looked,  in  security,  on 
the  magnificent  uproar  beneath  us.  The  spray 
flew  up  from  below  even  to  where  we  were, 
more  than  two  hundred  feet  above  the  bottom 
of  the  fall ;  and  double,  aye  triple,  rainbows 
danced  upon  its  curling  eddies. 

We  returned  to  Goat  Island,  rejoicing  that 
the  so-called  Terrapin  Bridge,  which  used  to 
spring  out  from  the  rocks  at  the  base  of  the 
tower,  and  project  some  ten  feet  over  the 
edge  of  the  Horseshoe  Fall,  had  been  recently 
washed  away ;  so  that  our  nerves  were  not 
tried  in  having  to  pass  to  the  end  of  it. 

We   turned    to   the   left,    and    skirted    the 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  139 

northern  side  of  Goat  Island,  below  the  Ca- 
nadian or  Horseshoe  Fall.  Again  we  were 
overshadowed  by  lofty  oak  trees,  as  we  circled 
round  its  eastern  extremity.  They  opened  : 
and  the  American  Falls  swept  down  before 
us.  Never  was  a  more  beautiful  prospect  ! 
The  branch  of  the  river  on  the  American  side 
of  Goat  Island  is  not  so  wide  ;  the  mass  of 
waters  is  not  so  great ;  but  the  scenery  is 
more  broken — more  wooded  ;  the  height,  even, 
of  the  cascade  is  greater.  Down,  down  they 
tumbled  amid  the  overhanging  boughs,  and 
were  received  into  clouds  of  their  own  foam 
at  the  bottom.  Then,  immediately  mingling 
with  the  Canadian  branch  of  the  river  that 
had  come  down  the  great  Horseshoe  Fall, 
they  swept  on  their  way  together,  and  sped 
adown  the  narrow  ravine  towards  Lake  On- 
tario. I  have  seen  the  Falls  of  Tivoli,  of 
Terni,  of  SchafFhausen :  were  there  no  Horse- 
shoe Fall,  the  American  Falls  of  Niagara 
would  be  incomparably  the  grandest — as  they 
are,  even  now,  incomparably  the  most  beau- 
tiful— in  the  world. 

We  could  not  linger.     It  was  hopeless  to 


140  THE  WABASH. 

try  to  look  one's  fill.  We  retraced  our  steps : 
passed  again  over  Bath  Island  and  its  bridge  ; 
across  the  noisy  American  rapids  ;  and  pre- 
pared to  follow  the  advice  of  Mr.  Geo.  W.  Sims. 
His  "  descending  car  or  steps"  are  at  no  great 
distance.  Our  children  were  tired  and  would 
not  explore  farther.  My  wife  and  I  seated 
ourselves  on  a  wooden  sofa,  and  were  let  down 
an  inclined  plane  to  the  water  edge.  There 
we  found  a  boat  capable  of  holding  about  ten 
people,  and  a  young  fellow,  perhaps  Mr.  Geo. 
W.  Sims  himself,  beside  it.  I  had  seldom  seen 
a  more  doggedly-impudent-looking  counten- 
ance. We  seated  ourselves  in  the  boat ;  but 
there  he  stood,  silent  and  heedless.  Why  did 
he  not  put  off]  We  had  not  paid  our  fare, 
seventy-three  cents  across  and  back.  Could 
we  not  pay  it  in  the  boat  ?  No ;  he  would  not 
touch  an  oar  till  all  was  paid.  Pocketing  the 
money,  he  leisurely  seated  himself  and  pulled 
out  into  the  torrent.  His  handbill  said  that  it 
was  a  five  minutes'  passage  :  it  took  us  double 
that  time  to  cross  ;  and  indeed  good  nerves 
were  required  to  sit  unmoved  in  that  cockle- 


CHAP.  V. NIAGARA  FALLS.       141 

shell,  tossing  upon  the  angry  eddies  as  they 
rushed,  at  storm-pace,  beneath  us. 

We  landed  on  the  Canadian  shore.  Here 
two  or  three  fly-men  touched  their  hats  and 
offered  their  vehicles  to  take  us  to  Table  Rock. 
They  said  their  fare  to  go  there  and  return 
was  half  a  dollar.  I  asked  the  one  I  selected 
if  he  would  have  it  before  he  mounted  the 
coachbox :  he  shook  his  head  smiling,  and 
shrugged  his  shoulders  as  he  looked  to  the 
American.  I  must  own  that  the  behaviour  of 
the  two  races  thus  separated  by  a  short  ferry, 
contrasted  unfavourably  for  the  citizen.  Not 
that  citizens  are  necessarily  brutes  ;  but,  in 
Europe,  a  ferryman  who  should  behave  like 
one,  would  be  turned  adrift  by  his  employer. 

A  quarter  of  an  hour's  drive  brought  us  up 
the  steep  bank  of  the  river,  past  a  good-look- 
ing hotel,  to  the  edge  of  the  far-famed  Table 
Rock.  This  is  merely  a  ledge  which  stands 
out,  somewhat  further  than  the  others,  over 
the  chasm  in  front  of  the  Horseshoe  Fall.  In 
itself,  it  is  a  mere  platform  :  but  the  view  from 
it  is  everlasting  grand  !     I  use  the  words  ad- 


142  THE  WABASH. 

visedly  ;  as  it  has  been,  so  it  will  be  for  ever- 
lasting. It  is  more  directly  in  front  of  the  fall 
than  we  had  been  on  Goat  Island,  and  from  it 
all  the  width  and  depth  is  more  fully  seen. 
Let  it,  however,  be  understood  that  here  are 
no  accessories  of  scenery  ;  perhaps  the  fall 
itself  is  grander  without  them :  but  let  it  be 
understood  that  the  great  Canadian  branch  of 
the  river  comes  on  towards  the  cascades  be- 
tween naked  unbroken  banks  on  a  level  with 
its  surface  ;  and  that  no  trees  fringe  its  cur- 
rent, no  broken  rocks  diversify  its  banks. 
Unadorned,  in  its  native  grandeur,  it  comes 
along  :  unadorned,  in  its  native  grandeur  it 
springs  into  the  chasm. 

We  declined  the  offer  to  descend  the  stairs 
from  the  Table  Rock,  and  to  proceed,  on  a 
slippery  ledge,  behind  the  cascade,  as  it  arches 
over  in  its  fall ;  although  Appleton's  excellent 
guide-book  did  assure  us  that  "  a  gentleman" 
had  charge  of  it  and  furnished  dresses  to  pre- 
vent the  adventurous  from  being  too  much 
wetted  by  the  spray.  We  returned  in  our 
carriage  to  the  gentleman  at  the  ferry-boat, 
Mr.  George  W.  Sims.     Two  other  passengers 


CHAP.   V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  143 

were  in  it  already,  and  he  pulled  from  the 
bank.  From  this  ferry  is,  perhaps,  the  grandest 
view  of  all ;  for  the  boat  passes  close  in  front 
of  both  the  American  and  the  Horseshoe  Falls, 
and  yon  are  enabled  to  take  in  as  much  of 
both  at  once  as  their  magnitude  will  allow. 
It  was  a  magnificent  sight;  and  we  were 
almost  forgetting  our  apparently  dangerous 
position,  when  a  little  steamer  rushed  beside 
us  to  the  foot  of  the  cascades  and  buried  itself 
in  their  mist,  Our  ferryman  pulled  on  one 
side,  and  his  straw  hat  was  blown  from  his 
head  upon  the  rushing  water.  He  turned 
round  his  ferry-boat  and  prepared  to  follow  it. 

"  Surely,"  I  exclaimed,  "  you  are  not  going 
to  attempt  to  recover  your  hat  out  of  this 
boiling  surge  !" 

"  I  guess  you  won't  hinder  me,"  he  sulkily 
replied,  as  he  plied  his  oars,  and  whirled 
the  cauoe  hither  and  thither  across  and  down 
the  hurrying  torrent.  No  danger,  perhaps ; 
perhaps  nothing  to  terrify  those  who  were 
daily  accustomed  to  the  ferry ;  but  certainly  a 
kind  of  boat  race  or  rather  hat  race,  which  no 
one  who  sees  that  river  for  the  first  time  would 


144  THE  WABASH. 

adventure  upon  for  the  value  of  the  said  hat, 
were  it  full  of  solid  gold.  It  was  recovered, 
however  ;  the  Maid  of  the  Mist  steamer  again 
swept  past  us;  a  band  was  playing  on  its 
deck ;  and  we  landed  at  the  old  place,  and 
were  drawn  up  the  inclined  plane.  Here  I 
paid  twenty-five  cents  for  our  slide  up  and 
down,  and  told  the  "gentleman"  who  took 
the  toll  what  I  thought  of  Mr.  George  W.  Sims. 

The  cars  were  drawn  up  in  the  centre  of 
Fall  Street ;  the  holiday  folks  were  hastening 
to  them  from  the  several  hotels ;  we  also  took 
our  places  and  returned  to  Buffalo,  wondering 
whether  I  should  ever  again  see  this  world 
wonder ;  but  quite  certain  that  the  toll,  two 
dollars,  I  had  paid  for  the  family  run  of  Goat 
Island  during  the  remainder  of  this  season 
could,  under  no  circumstances,  avail  us  again. 

In  the  cars,  I  studied  the  map  prefixed  to 
the  guide  book  I  had  purchased.  On  one 
side  of  Niagara  river,  it  showed  truly  enough, 
the  plan  of  a  considerable  village  which  I 
knew,  from  the  bustle  about  several  apparently 
first-rate  hotels,  really  to  exist,  and  to  exist  in 
oreat  activity — two  railroads  starting  from  it. 


CHAP.   V. NIAGARA  FALLS.  145 

On  the  other  side  of  the  river,  on  the  Canadian 
side,  it  showed  four  dots  inscribed  "  Clifton 
house",  "Camera obscura",  "Museum",  "Table 
rock";  these  also,  I  knew  to  exist,  for  I  had 
passed  them ;  but  it  likewise  gave,  as  far  as 
the  paper  would  allow,  a  "  Plan  of  proposed 
City  of  the  Falls",  intersected  by  a  railroad, 
the  whole  of  which  I  knew  to  be  imaginary. 
Yet,  why  is  this  \  Why  do  we  find  a  nourish- 
ing town  and  community  on  one  side,  and  a 
desert  on  the  other  ?  Let  it  not  be  said  that 
it  is  because  the  land  on  the  one  side  is  part  of 
the  United  States,  and  on  the  other  is  subject 
to  England.  Let  not  this  be  said.  But  what 
answer  can  we  make  to  those  who  will  say  sol 
What  answer  can  we  make  to  those  who  tell 
us  that  this  very  town  of  Buffalo  had  been  a 
small  military  post,  and  was  burnt  to  the 
ground  by  English  and  Indians  forty  years 
ago ;  that,  twenty-five  years  ago,  it  contained 
only  twenty-five  hundred  inhabitants  ;  and  that 
its  population  is  now  upwards  of  forty  thou- 
sand :  what  can  we  answer  to  those  who  «;ive 
us  these  statistics,  and  ask  for  something  cor- 
responding from  the  Canadian  side  \ 


/ 


CHAPTER  VI. 


LAKE   ERIE. 

The  Mayor  of  Buffalo  and  the  porters. — The  night  of  a  nurse. 
— Lake  Erie. — Cross  questions  and  crooked  answers. — Emi- 
gration.— Sandusky  City. — Labels  for  railway  luggage. — 
Through  the  forest. — Log  houses  and  frame  houses. — A  worm 
fence. — Clearings. — Agriculture  of  Ohio. — Arrival  at  Cin- 
cinnati. 

Returning  from  Niagara  Falls,  we  had  tea 
with  our  five  youngest  children,  whom  we  had 
left  at  the  hotel  at  Buffalo,  and  then  drove  to 
the  quay  and  embarked  on  the  Empire  steamer 
on  Lake  Erie.  The  porter  brought  our  bag- 
gage on  board ;  I  gave  it  in  charge  to  the 
steward,  who  was  to  pay  particular  attention 
to  it  for  a  particular  remuneration.  The  hotel 
porter  then  made  some  extraordinary  charge 
for  himself,  the  nature  of  which  I  now  forget ; 
but  which  I  positively  refused  to  pay.  Here- 
upon occurred  a  scene  such  as  we  read  of  in 
old  novels.  The  porter  threatened  to  take 
back  my  luggage  in  lieu  of  payment ;   and  I 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  147 

warned  the  steward  that,  the  luggage  being 
committed  to  his  charge,  I  should  hold  the 
steamer  responsible  if  any  of  it  was  touched. 
The  porter  would  call  a  sheriff's  officer.  I 
told  him  to  do  so.  I  watched  him  go  across 
the  quay,  and  presently  return  with  a  com- 
panion. 

"  I  am  an  officer,"  said  he,  "  sent  to  enforce 
payment  of  this  gentleman's  charge  (N.B.  the 
"  gentleman"  was  the  porter.) 

"  What  is  his  charge  ?"  I  asked. 

This  was  a  puzzler;  and  the  confederate 
appealed  to  his  principal ;  being  informed 
thereon,  he  returned  to  me. 

"  What  is  your  own  name  V  I  asked. 

His  name,  he  said,  mattered  not.  He  came 
from  the  mayor  of  Buffalo. 

"  And  the  mayor  of  Buffalo  has  given  judg- 
ment on  the  statement  of  your  friend  only ! 
Show  me  the  judgment,  and  your  authority." 

The  confederate  was  staggered,  and  both 
began  to  bully. 

"  Hark  ye,  gentlemen,"  said  I ;  "  the  mayor 
of  Buffalo  has  just  gone  on  board  the  steamer. 
Look  !  there  he  is  on  deck — that  tall  gentleman 


148  THE  WABASH. 

with  his  lady  and  child.  Let  us  go  and  appeal 
to  him." 

The  two  confederates  looked  in  the  direction 
in  which  I  pointed ;  then  looked  at  one  an- 
other ;  and  then,  turning  on  their  heels,  quickly 
disappeared. 

I  went  up  to  the  mayor  of  Buffalo  and  told 
him  what  had  just  occurred.  He  was  much 
amused ;  and  expressed  regret  that  he  had  not 
become  acquainted  with  his  self-constituted 
officer.  He  was  a  pleasant,  well-informed  man, 
and  was  going  on  a  little  trip  westward  with 
his  family. 

As  our  voyage  was  to  last  through  the  night, 
it  was  necessary  to  select  cabins.  I  found 
on  board  the  steamer,  two  or  three  separate 
rooms  on  deck  with  full  sized  beds  in  them  ; 
and  for  a  small  additional  charge,  I  secured 
one  of  these  for  myself  and  my  wife.  They 
called  them  Bride's  rooms.  The  eleven  children 
of  the  "bride"  were  not  so  comfortably  be- 
stowed. In  order  to  show  the  uninitiated  how 
nurses  often  spend  the  night,  I  copy  an  extract 
from  the  journal  of  Lucy,  my  late  invalid  of  Ta- 
lence,  but  whom  the  sea  voyage  had  completely 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  149 

restored  to  health :  "  The  steamer",  she  writes, 
"  was  built  on  much  the  same  plan  as  the  New 
World ;  but,  instead  of  the  separate  inner 
nursery,  there  was  one  public  ladies'  saloon, 
with  berths  round  it,  in  which  all  we  girls  had 
the  pleasure  of  sleeping.  No  strangers  were 
there,  except  a  neat  little  Irishwoman  and  her 
baby  ;  another  very  quiet  respectable-looking 
old  lady ;  and  an  old  woman  who  had  never 
been  on  the  water  before,  and  had  expressed 
her  fears  to  me  throughout  the  evening,  ex- 
claiming, '  Xow  I  hope  there  won't  be  a  storm !' 
'  Ain't  you  afeard  the  biler'l  bust,  and  that  if 
it  did,  we  should  all  be  lost.'  The  novelty 
of  my  situation,  in  the  upper  berth  over  my 
sister,  and  the  light  in  the  cabin  kept  me 
awake  :  but  I  was  just  beginning  to  doze  at 
about  one  o'clock,  when  the  door  of  the  ladies' 
washing-room  opened  and  my  friend,  the  timid 
old  woman,  came  in  and  began  to  undress. 
She  had  betaken  herself  to  that  room  about 
nine  o'clock  and  had  wished  to  take  a  candle 
with  her  ;  but  the  stewardess  had  not  allowed 
it,  so  she  had  lit  her  cigar  by  the  lamp  of  the 
stewardess  and,  as  the  latter  told  us,  had  been 


150  THE  WABASH. 

smoking  and  drinking  brandy  and  water  there 
in  the  dark.  However,  about  one  o'clock, 
when  my  eyes  were  half  shut,  I  saw  her  re- 
turn into  the  cabin  and  begin  to  undress ;  but 
having  fumbled  about  for  some  time  unsuc- 
cessfully endeavouring  to  do  so,  she  scrambled 
into  her  berth,  as  she  was,  with  her  clothes  on, 
and  I  went  to  sleep.  I  had  not  long  enjoyed  a 
refreshing  rest,  when  I  was  waked  by  the  noise 
of  my  little  brother  coughing  and  choking  ; 
I  listened  for  some  time,  and  then  got  down 
from  my  berth  and  took  him  out  of  his  bed. 
He  coughed  and  seemed  to  be  choking  as  if 
he  had  the  croup  ;  but,  at  last,  he  fell  asleep, 
and  I  laid  him  in  his  bed  again  :  but  he  had 
not  been  there  one  minute  before  his  coughing 
returned ;  and  he  continued  coughing  and 
choking  for  two  hours,  but  waked  up  when- 
ever I  attempted  to  put  him  in  his  bed.  So  I 
wrapped  myself  and  him  in  shawls,  and  we 
slept  together  in  the  rocking  chair  till  morn- 
ing. Two  of  my  sisters  woke  and  asked  what 
was  the  matter,  and  then  went  to  sleep  again. 
The  little  Irish  baby  woke  up  and  began 
to    cry,  but   soon  was    quieted :    his   mother 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  151 

and  the  old  lady  prescribed  several  remedies, 
some  of  which  were  in  our  medicine  chest ; 
but  I  could  not  give  anything  without  asking 
mama,  and  I  did  not  know  her  cabin.  I  was 
glad  to  arise  in  the  morning  from  my  unre- 
freshing  sleep ;  hoping  that  I  might  pass  the 
next  night  in  a  comfortable  bed." 

What  think  you,  reader,  of  a  night  so  passed 
in  a  steamboat  on  Lake  Erie  by  the  delicate, 
slim,  young  girl  whom  you  may  have  known 
in  far  other  scenes  \  While  she  was  chatting1 
or  was  dancing  with  you  last  winter,  amid  the 
gay  and  the  highborn  of  those  who  thronged 
her  mother's  drawing-rooms  in  the  handsomest 
palace  in  Rome,  I  warrant  me  she  often  thought 
with  pleasure  of  her  night  on  Lake  Erie ;  as  I 
trust  my  wife  and  my  other  children  often 
think  of  the  still  harder  and  more  menial  offices 
to  which  we  shall  see  them  all  hereafter  so 
lovingly  and  so  gallantly  bow  themselves. 
Thus  do  I  testify  my  gratitude  to  them ;  here- 
after, I  may  tell  the  cause  of  our  so  "  rough- 
ing it." 

"  Why  it  is  evident  that  they  were  travelling 
without  any  servants !" 


152  THE  WABASH. 

Gentle  reader !  it  was  even  so.  While  we 
lived  at  Talence,  in  France,  only  two  of  our 
servants,  a  lady's  maid  and  a  nurse,  were  Eng- 
lish; and  these  had  returned  home,  as  they 
were  unwilling  to  venture  across  the  Atlantic. 
The  others,  women  and  men,  were  all  French ; 
and,  of  course,  unsuited  to  such  a  journey. 
We  had  the  less  regretted  losing  our  English 
servants  because  we  knew  that,  in  all  proba- 
bility, they  would  be  sea  sick  and  useless  on 
the  voyage,  where  stewardesses  and  stewards 
would  supply  their  place ;  and  would  leave  us 
to  marry  and  settle  in  the  United  States  soon 
after  our  arrival.  At  New  York,  we  had  been 
much  put  out  by  the  treacherous  desertion  of 
the  maid  whom  we  had  hired  there ;  for  al- 
though one  attendant  would  have  been  little 
amongst  our  party,  still  she  might  have  sufficed 
while  in  the  two  steamers  and  two  railway  cars 
that  alone,  as  we  thought,  interposed  between 
us  and  a  more  settled  domicile.  She,  however, 
had  failed  us ;  and  I  had  yet  to  learn  the  im- 
possibility of  finding  servants  in  the  western 
states.  There  were,  also,  other  reasons  which 
induced  us  to  risk  the  journey  without  our 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  153 

usual  travelling  establishment.  The  time  is 
not  yet  come  when  I  may  declare  them.  .  .  But 
declared  they  shall  hereafter  be.  .  .  . 

Next  morning,  our  steamer  was  steadily 
proceeding  westward  through  its  quiet  inland 
sea.  The  steamboats  on  these  lakes  recom- 
mend themselves  as  being  "  low  pressure" — 
perhaps  the  people  are  more  nervous  than 
elsewhere,  owing  to  their  nearness  to  Canada  ; 
and  we  were  only  advancing  at  the  rate  of  ten 
miles  an  hour.  On  our  right  hand,  was  a 
waste  of  waters ;  on  our  left,  at  no  great  dis- 
tance, were  the  shores  of  New  York  State, 
now  fading  behind  us,  of  Pennsylvania  and  of 
Ohio.  There  was  nothing  marked  in  the 
scenery  of  either.  Hills,  covered  with  forests 
amongst  which  were  occasional  clearings  and 
farms,  occasional  villages,  occasional  towns, 
rose  gently  from  the  water  edge — almost  a  re- 
gular bank.  We  passed  the  headland  on 
which  stands  the  little  town  of  Erie,  and  in  the 
harbour  of  which,  in  1813,  according  to  Ame- 
rican boast,  they  built,  in  seventy  days  from 
the  time  when  they  were  waving  in  their  na- 
tive forests,  a  fleet  which  contended  success- 


154  THE  WABASH. 

fully  with  the  British  on  these  waters.  We 
stopped  at  Cleveland,  where  most  of  our  pas- 
sengers left  us  to  proceed  by  railway  to  the 
interior  of  Ohio  or  to  Pittsburgh.  And  here, 
in  fact,  we  ourselves  ought  to  have  landed ; 
but  I  had,  in  a  great  degree,  taken  my  route 
from  the  maps  and  descriptive  works  on  board 
the  Kate  Hunter  and  from  Appleton's  guide- 
book ;  and  all  these,  having  been  printed  dur- 
ing the  preceding  year,  were  already  out  of 
date ;  a  railroad  had  been  since  made  from 
Cleveland,  of  which  they  gave  no  notice.  Guide 
books  hi  the  United  States  should  be  pub- 
lished every  month,  like  Braclshaw's  railway 
time  tables ! 

But  a  fresh  breeze  came  down  from  the  great 
lakes  and  hills  of  North  Canada,  and  tempered 
the  noon-day  heat ;  and  pleasantly  we  walked 
or  sat  about  the  decks,  as  we  advanced  farther 
and  farther  to  the  west.  Some  strawberries 
which  I  had  purchased  as  we  stepped  on  board 
at  Buffalo,  were  gratefully  eaten  in  the  "  Bride's 
room".  The  basket  that  held  them  is  painted, 
and  bright-varnished  in  England,' — a  memorial 
of  other  lands.     Then  our  children  came  to  us 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  155 

in  a  body  for  instructions  how  they  should 
meet  the  questioning  and  cross-questioning  to 
which  they  had  been  subjected  ever  since  they 
landed  at  New  York.  Young  and  old,  parents 
and  children,  poor  and  rich, — all  thought  them- 
selves entitled  to  ask  "  Where  do  you  come 
from]"  "Where  are  you  going?"  "How 
long  have  you  been  in  the  country'?"  "  How 
long  are  you  going  to  stop V  "I  calculate 
your  father  will  be  for  buying  a  location V 
"Is  not  it  an  everlasting  great  country  V\ 
"How  many  brothers  and  sisters  are  you  \n 
"  Are  you  all  one  family  V — this  doubt  seemed 
to  weigh  upon  the  mind  of  all  we  met ;  large 
families  are  not  common  in  the  United  States. 
Our  children  complained  that  a  civil  answer 
only  brought  on  a  more  impertinent  question  ; 
and  besought  us  to  tell  them  how  they  should 
meet  their  inquisitors.  I  considered  a  moment, 
and  then  desired  them  to  answer  very  politely, 
but  very  innocently,  either  "  I  do  not  know," 
or  else  "You  had  better  ask  papa  and  mamma." 
The  plan  succeeded.  Cuddie  Heaclrig  in 
"  Old  Mortality,"  said  that  it  was  very  useful 


156  THE  WABASH. 

to  be  able  to  look  stupid ;  and  our  children 
thus  got  rid  of  many  tormentors. 

We  were  now  on  the  high  track  followed 
generally  by  the  agricultural  emigrants  to 
the  West ;  to  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  the 
northern  parts  of  Illinois.  They  can  come  up 
to  Buffalo  by  the  canal  or  railroad,  as  we 
had  done  ;  and  thence  find  unbounded  water 
carriage  by  the  Great  lakes  ;  even  a  ship  canal 
from  Michigan  to  the  Mississippi  river  enables 
them  to  go  down  it  to  New  Orleans,  and  cir- 
cumnavigate the  greater  part  of  the  settled 
portion  of  the  continent  of  North  America.  I 
myself  had  been  strongly  recommended  to 
settle  my  sons  in  the  State  of  Ohio  on  lands 
that  should  have  been  already  partially  cleared; 
while  others  again  reminded  me  that,  by  so 
doing,  I  should  allow  the  pioneer  to  reap  the 
first  great  benefit  of  emigration  ;  and  should 
have  to  sink  capital  in  paying  him  for  improve- 
ment that  the  emigrant  himself  finds  amuse- 
ment, excitement,  and  profit  in  making  for 
himself.  All  this  was  to  be  investigated.  I 
myself  had  a  fancy  for  the  State  of  Indiana ; 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  157 

perhaps,  because  I  had  never  been  able  to  find 
out  anything  about  it.  At  all  events,  we 
would  go  for  a  time  to  Cincinnati ;  see  all 
Ohio,  traverse  Indiana  and  Illinois ;  and  then, 
making  St.  Louis  our  head-quarters  for  a  few 
months,  attempt  an  excursion  into  Iowa,  a  new 
State  which  I  had  heard  very  highly  spoken  of. 

Travelling  as  we  did,  I  spent  my  time  in 
conversing  with  people  of  all  classes ;  and 
having  in  view  the  one  object,  to  become 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  United  States, 
I  acquired  a  fund  of  information  which  I 
scarcely  know  how  to  condense ;  though  I 
collated  and  methodised  it  at  the  time,  and 
rejected  all  that  I  believe  was  not  to  be 
depended  on. 

The  stewardess  on  board  this  Erie  steamer 
was  much  interested  in  our  large  family  ;  and 
behaved  to  my  children  with  great  attention 
and  civility.  She  took  us  to  be  emigrants,  as 
we  represented  ourselves ;  and  told  of  the 
many  others  whom  her  steamer  had  conveyed 
to  the  Far  West,  and  who  were  now  settled  in 
comfort  and  affluence.  She  made  us  laugh, 
by  an  account  she  gave  of  one  English  family 


158  THE  WABASH. 

who  had  lately  passed  back  again,  and  returned 
to  England,  after  a  trial  of  only  two  months, 
disgusted  with  something  that  had  displeased 
them.  Poor  people  !  we  laughed  at  them  ; 
and  little  thought  what  we  ourselves  should 
be  doing  within  the  same  period. 

I  must  now  copy  Louie's  statement. 

"  We  arrived  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening 
at  Sandusky  City,  a  large  straggling  place, 
something  between  a  town  and  a  village,  with 
a  very  scanty  population  and  ill-built  houses. 
We  went  immediately  to  the  hotel,  a  large 
handsome  building,  called  the  Townsend 
House ;  but  I  felt  a  cold  chill  creep  over  me 
as  I  saw  the  bedroom  destined  for  four  of  us 
girls.  It  was  a  large  room,  wTith  four  bare 
white-washed  walls,  and  but  little  furniture 
besides  a  couple  of  double  beds  covered  with 
musquito  curtains, — the  first  I  had  seen  since 
I  left  my  beloved  Italy.  Three  large  windows, 
in  which  almost  every  pane  of  glass  was  either 
cracked  or  broken,  did  not  tend  to  make  the 
room  more  cheerful  and  inviting.  We  were 
tired  with  our  day  at  Niagara  the  day  before ; 
and  Lucy  and  some  of  us  had  had  little  sleep 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  159 

during  the  night  in  the  steam  packet ;  and 
we  retired  to  rest  as  soon  as  we  had  filled  the 
places  of  the  broken  panes  with  towels  as  well 
as  we  could.  We  attempted  to  let  down  our 
musquito  curtains ;  but,  at  the  first  touch, 
they  fell,  not  being  securely  fastened.  Not  a 
single  window-sash  fitted  into  its  frame  ;  papa 
said  they  had  been  all  made  of  green  fir  wood, 
which  had  shrunk;  there  were  no  weights 
and  pulleys  to  raise  them  by,  but  pegs  that 
were  put  into  holes  under  the  raised  sash,  as 
we  have  since  found  to  be  the  general  plan  in 
the  backwoods.  Next  morning,  after  break- 
fast, as  two  of  my  sisters  were  looking  out  of 
the  window,  the  sash  fell  and  hurt  them ;  they 
narrowly  escaped  dying  by  the  guillotine  in 
America  ! 

"  In  short,"  she  continues,  "  it  was  with  no 
feelings  of  regret  that  we  quitted  this  very 
disagreeable  place,  and  set  off  in  the  cars  for 
Cincinnati,  the  "  Queen  city  of  the  west",  and 
one  of  the  few  towns  in  the  United  States  of 
America  which  English  people  know,  or  care 
to  know,  anything  about.  Indeed,  since  our 
return  to  the  "  old  country",  I  have  been  sur- 


160  THE  WABASH. 

prised  and  disappointed  at  the  utter  want  of 
interest  displayed  by  our  country  people  on 
the  subject  of  America.  They  seem  to  con- 
sider North  America  as  a  great  desert,  in 
which  there  are  five  or  six  large  towns,  such 
as  New  York,  Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  Bos- 
ton, and  Baltimore.  As  to  South  America,  it 
is  another  large  desert,  peopled  with  parrots 
and  monkeys,  and  containing  silver  mines. 
And  this  ignorance  is  the  more  surprising, 
because  now  so  many  people  visit  the  western 
hemisphere,  and  write  descriptions  of  their 
travels.  Of  the  government  and  constitution 
of  the  country,  every  state  of  which  is  as  large 
as  all  England  and  Scotland,  and  has  inde- 
pendent laws,  and  a  president  of  its  own, — of 
all  this,  they  know  nothing:  it  is  Hebrew  to 
them." 

Pretty  strenuous  criticism  this  of  my 
daughter !  However,  we  must  not  question 
the  experience  of  a  young  lady  whose  thir- 
teenth birthday  had  occurred  when  we  were 
on  board  the  Kate  Hunter,  and  who  wrote 
down  her  impressions  a  year  and  a-half  after- 
wards. 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  161 

I  accompanied  my  luggage  to  the  station- 
house  at  Sandusky,  and  found  again  here 
the  same  inconvenient  plan  of  labelling  and 
ticketing  luggage,  which  I  had  first  seen 
adopted  at  Albany,  and  which  is  general 
throughout  the  States :  a  brass  token,  with  a 
number  engraved  upon  it,  is  sewn  to  a  lea- 
thern thong,  and  tied  to  each  article,  the 
owner  of  which  is  expected  to  put  another 
brass  token,  engraved  with  the  corresponding 
number,  into  his  pocket.  This  the  owner  of 
one  or  two  packages  could  easily  do  ;  but  the 
custom-house  officer  at  New  York  had  counted 
forty-two  packages  as  belonging  to  me  ;  and 
it  was  no  pleasant  matter  to  have  to  find 
pocket-room  for  forty-two  brass  tokens  as 
large  as  penny  pieces.  Then  at  the  end  of 
every  journey,  when  the  luggage  was  to  be 
reclaimed,  every  holder  of  a  token  had  to 
produce  it  as  the  number  on  the  corresponding 
one  tied  to  each  trunk  was  called  out ;  and 
as,  of  course,  the  numbers  did  not  follow  one 
another  regularly,  a  most  perplexing  scene  of 
confusion  and  delay  always  arose  when  any 
passenger  had  more  than  one  or  two  packages. 


162  THE  WABASH. 

I  in  vain  endeavoured  to  make  them  under- 
stand the  plan  of  fixing  one  and  the  same 
letter  to  all  the  luggage  of  one  and  the  same 
owner,  which  might  be  reclaimed  by  the  pro- 
duction of  one  check.  They  then  declared 
that  they  could  not  understand  me.  I  have 
no  doubt  they  have  adopted  the  plan  since. 
They  have  no  revered  antiquated  prejudices 
to  prevent  improvement. 

But  we  were  seated  in  cars  like  those  I 
have  before  described,  and  were  advancing 
along  the  "  Lake  Erie  and  Mad  River  Rail- 
road". I  regret  that  I  can  give  no  appropriate 
description  of  the  "Mad  River";  but,  truth 
to  say,  I  could  never  find  it,  see  it,  or  hear  of 
even  its  locality.  The  train  passed  onwards 
through  forests  of  Scotch  fir  trees  of  no  great 
size ;  nature  has  set  them  so  close  together, 
and  the  soil  is  so  poor,  that  their  growth  is 
stunted.  Striking  at  first,  the  effect  soon  be- 
came monotonous.  The  electric  telegraph 
was  conducted  beside  the  railway :  and  our 
chief  interest  was  soon  derived  from  watching 
the  many  birds  that  perched  upon  its  wires, 
of  plumage  and  shape  different  from  those  of 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  163 

Europe.  Stray  clearings  appeared  among  the 
woods  here  and  there  ;  where  the  soil  was  a 
little  better,  the  trees  had  been  destroyed,  and 
a  few  acres  brought  into  cultivation ;  and  a 
frame  farmhouse  might  be  seen  on  some  slight 
elevation  amid  the  forest  in  the  distance.  But 
such  spots  were  few  and  far  between;  fir 
woods  stretched  darkly  on  every  side,  and  no 
fence  separated  them  from  the  line  of  the 
railway.  The  driver's  whistle  was,  however, 
often  and  oftener  heard;  I  marvelled  what 
could  cause  such  frequent  warnings ;  and  at 
length  discovered  that  stray  cattle  were  lying 
across  the  rails,  and  as  the  country  became 
more  inhabited,  of  course  these  became  more 
frequent.  About  once  in  two  hours,  the 
trains  stopped  to  take  in  a  supply  of  wood 
fuelling ;  this  was  kept  neatly  cut  and  piled 
under  sheds  beside  the  log  or  frame  cottage  of 
the  wood-cutter. 

Dost  know  the  difference,  reader,  between 
a  log  and  a  frame-house  1  The  latter  is,  as  its 
name  implies,  a  framework  of  sawn  timber, 
covered  over  with  weather  boards,  like  most 
of  the  barns  and  farm  buildings  in  the  south 


164  THE  WABASH. 

of  Hampshire  ;  the  log-house  is  made  of  the 
whole  boles  or  stems  of  trees  laid  one  upon 
the  other,  and  the  one  rudely  "tenanted"  into 
the  other  at  the  four  corners.  On  the  inside, 
the  interstices  between  the  boles  are  filled  up 
with  straw  or  clay.  The  frame-house  is  always 
painted  white  to  preserve  the  boards ;  the  log- 
house  is  generally  whitewashed  for  neatness 
sake. 

Whenever  the  trains  stopped,  as  I  have 
said,  to  take  in  wood,  boys  came  into  the  cars 
with  great  jugs  of  lemonade  and  iced  water,  of 
which  almost  every  passenger  took  a  draught. 
Iced  water  and  ice,  the  commonest  necessary 
of  the  poorest  as  of  the  richest  throughout  the 
United  States,  is  a  luxury  that  may  be  said  to 
be  unattainable  even  to  the  wealthy  in  Eu- 
rope. When  the  next  station  was  a  town, 
these  water  boys  offered  us  cards  and  hand- 
bills recommending  the  several  hotels  in  it. 

But  we  were  rising  on  the  higher  ground 
that  parts  the  waters  that  flow  into  Lake  Erie 
from  those  that  incline  southwards  towards 
the  Ohio  River.  The  soil  was  better  in  qua- 
lity ;  the  country  gave  evidence  of  being  more 


CHAP.   VI. LAKE  ERIE.  165 

settled  ;  fences  began  to  hedge  in  the  clearings 
from  the  railway ;  the  guard's  whistle  was 
more  seldom  in  requisition  to  arouse  the  cattle, 
sheep,  or  horses  that  had  strayed  from  the 
forests  and  laid  themselves  to  sleep  on  our 
line.  Reader,  if  thy  dwelling  is  in  the  country, 
desire  a  hedge- carpenter  to  put  up  for  thee  in 
thy  grounds  a  wood  fence  without  posts  or 
nails,  and  mark  how  the  poor  man  will  stare ! 
To  fix  up  a  timber  fence  without  posts  or  nails  ! 
Impossible !  And  yet  the  land  of  the  United 
States,  where  it  is  fenced  at  all,  is  fenced  in 
by  such.  I  desired  my  three  daughters,  from 
whose  memoranda  I  occasionally  quote,  to 
write  a  description  of  a  "  worm  fence  ",  as  it 
is  called,  in  the  fewest  possible  words.  That 
given  by  Lucy  was  unintelligible  ;  Agnes 
covered  her  page  with  sketches  and  drawings, 
which  are  inadmissible  here ;  Louie  wrote  as 
follows  :  "  a  number  of  poles  are  laid  with  the 
ends  crossing  one  another  in  a  zigzag  line  on 
the  ground ;  others  are  laid  on  them  again  in 
the  same  manner,  and  so  on  until  the  fence  is 
of  a  sufficient  height.  Its  appearance  is  not 
unlike  a  half  unfolded  screen."     I  cannot  im- 


166  THE  WABASH. 

prove  upon  this  description.  The  poles  of 
which  it  is  formed  are  either  small  firs,  or  oak 
flitterns,  split  into  two  or  four.  They  are 
about  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  long,  and  are 
laid  almost  at  right  angles,  the  ends  projecting 
a  foot  or  two  beyond  where  they  lap  over.  It 
is  evident  that  the  rise  can  only  be  gained  by 
the  opening  between  each  layer  of  poles,  the 
width  of  which  opening  is  dependent  upon 
the  thickness  of  the  poles  themselves.  The 
fences  are  generally  about  twelve  bars  or  poles 
high.  The  consumption  of  wood  in  such  a 
fence  appears,  therefore,  at  first,  to  be  three 
times  as  much  as  it  would  be  in  a  four-rail 
English  fence  ;  but  when  we  measure  the  extra 
quantity  required  on  account  of  the  zig-zag 
lines  in  which  it  is  necessarily  placed,  and  by 
the  lapping  over  at  the  two  ends  of  each  rail, 
we  find  that  the  length  of  fencing,  necessary 
to  enclose  the  same  space,  is  double  what  it 
would  be  if  laid  straight ;  so  that,  in  real 
fact,  six  times  as  much  wood  has  to  be  cut, 
split,  hauled  and  built  up  as  would  be  required 
to  make  the  four  rails  of  one  of  our  straight 
fences.     But  an  American  will  tell  you  that  he 


CHAP.   VI. LAKE  ERIE.  167 

saves  the  posts ;  that  he  saves  the  labour  of 
digging  holes  in  which  to  plant  them  ;  that 
he  saves  the  labour  of  cutting  mortices  in 
which  to  insert  the  rails,  or  of  shaping  and 
nailing  them  ;  that  the  timber  is  worse  than 
worthless  to  him,  as  he  wishes  to  get  rid  of  it ; 
and  that,  during  the  winter,  he  can  do  little 
else.  Jonathan  is  a  shrewd  calculator  and,  I 
daresay,  he  is  right  in  this  instance.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  proverb,  "  America  will  be  an 
everlasting  great  country  when  it  is  all  fenced! " 

I  now  began  to  study  the  agriculture  of  the 
lands  I  passed  through  with  great  interest ; 
not  only  on  account  of  my  views  for  the  settle- 
ment of  my  children,  but  also  as  an  amateur 
and  practical  agriculturist ;  for  I  had  been 
called  away  from  our  home  unexpectedly,  for 
reasons  that  will  hereafter  be  told,  and,  at  this 
very  time,  I  kept  in  hand  and  farmed  by  my 
bailiffs  about  two  thousand  acres  of  our  estates 
in  different  counties  of  England.  I  was,  there- 
fore, competent  to  form  an  opinion  on  what  I 
saw. 

The  soil,  as  I  have  said,  improved  greatly 
as  we  advanced  into  the  interior  of  the  State  of 


168  THE  WABASH. 

Ohio  ;  we  had  left  the  fir  forests  and  entered 
a  country  of  fine  oak  timber ;  and  the  clearings 
were  consequently  more  frequent,  although 
in  different  stages  of  progress.  In  some,  the 
trees  had  been  hewn  down  and  left  on  the 
ground  to  decay.  In  others,  an  attempt  had 
been  made  to  burn  them  :  their  smaller  boughs 
had  indeed  been  burnt  off ;  but  there  stood  the 
blackened  trunks,  throwing  out  the  stumps  of 
their  great  charred  limbs  in  angry  desolation. 
In  some  places,  the  plough  was  at  work,  amid 
stumps  as  thick  as  ninepins,  turning  and  twist- 
ing about  as  only  an  American  plough  can.  In 
others,  the  stumps  had  been  partially  dug  up, 
and  the  ploughman  could  sometimes  draw  a 
straight  furrow.  In  some  places,  separate  fields 
were  even  enclosed  by  worm  fences,  and  all 
the  stumps  had  been  grubbed  up  and  cleared 
away,  or  at  least  they  lay  amid  the  corn  ready 
to  be  drawn  off  next  winter ;  a  few  great  trees 
being  left  here  and  there  for  ornament.  This 
showed  that  immense  progress  had  been  made  ; 
that  the  farmer  had  had  spare  capital  to  lay 
out,  and  that  he  was  employing  it  with  spirit ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  had  an  eye  to  the 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  169 

beautiful,  and  would  not  denude  his  location 
of  all  timber.  But  the  spirit  of  progress,  the 
spirit  of  money-making  was  at  work ;  and  in 
the  more  cultivated  and  improved  parts  of  all, 
even  these  last  memorials  of  the  primeval 
forest  had  received  notice  to  quit.  They  had 
been  ringed, as  we  woodcutters  say  in  England; 
the  bark  had  been  stripped  all  round  from  their 
great  boles  just  above  the  earth;  their  boughs 
were  bare  ;  no  leaves  intercepted  the  sun  and 
air  from  the  crops  beneath  ;  and  there  they 
stood  in  their  giant  nakedness,  the  last  of  their 
race,  and  soon  to  topple  over  at  the  feet  of  the 
conquering  intruder. 

Meanwhile,  the  residence  of  the  conqueror 
rose  upon  the  field  of  his  triumph,  or  beside 
the  forest  that  still  stood  untouched,  and  cover- 
ing, probably,  nine-tenths  of  his  farm.  Small 
frame  houses,  neatly  painted  white,  with  green 
Venetian  blinds,  dotted  the  country  pleasantly. 
Sometimes  rising  at  a  distance  upon  some 
elevation  amid  the  forest,  and  surrounded 
closely  by  square  farm  buildings,  they  looked 
like  gentlemen's  seats  from  the  old  country, 
"  bosomed  high  in  tufted  trees  "  of  an  ancestral 


170  THE  WABASH. 

park.  But,  in  general,  new  buildings  were 
placed  near  the  railroad,  as  affording  the  easiest 
means  of  communication  ;  some  few  were  of 
brick ;  but  frame  building  was  preferred  as 
cheaper  and  quite  as  durable.  Bricks  are 
badly  made  in  the  backwoods,  and  fall  to 
pieces  within  half  a  century. 

At  Bellefontaine — why  the  place  has  such  a 
pretty  name,  I  know  not ;  but  at  Bellefontaine, 
Yellow  Springs,  (where  are  some  mineral 
baths,)  and  Xenia,  the  country  is  very  pleasing. 
I  cannot  say  beautiful  and  picturesque  ;  for  the 
forest  produces  a  strange  effect,  and  appears  to 
level  the  landscape  by  filling  up  the  hollows, 
and  hiding  all  the  broken  ground.  One  would 
have  supposed  that,  as  it  mantles  the  hills  as 
well  as  the  valleys,  the  relative  elevation  and 
depression  would  have  been  the  same.  The 
effect,  however,  is  quite  different ;  and  looking 
at  the  clearings  amongst  the  woods,  we  are 
surprised  to  see  a  prettily-undulating  country 
where  all  around  seems  to  be  level.  From 
Bellefontaine  to  Xenia,  the  soil  is  a  rich  loam  ; 
I  was  told  that  it  improved  even  towards 
Columbus,  the    capital  of  the    state :    a  fine 


CHAP.   VI. LAKE  ERIE.  171 

country  for  the  agriculturist.  For  here  arc  no 
swamps,  no  rich  bottoms  to  breed  fever  and 
ague :  but  what,  in  England,  we  should  call  a 
good  barley  and  wheat  land.  The  crops,  how- 
ever, were  wonderfully  slight ;  rarely  did  I  set1 
a  wheat  crop  that  would  average  four  sacks  to 
the  acre  ;  many  were  there  that  could  hardly 
be  cut  and  collected  together  from  amid  the 
stumps  and  offshoots  springing  up  from  im- 
perfectly grubbed  roots.  The  corn  crops. 
(Indian  corn),  were  very  promising ;  but  I 
thought  to  myself  that  we  English  landowners 
need  not  fear  the  competition  of  wheat  im- 
ported from  the  United  States. 

We  dined  comfortably,  and  refreshed  at  dif- 
ferent places  on  the  way.  At  Xenia,  we  were  de- 
layed sometime,  waitingfor  the  train  from  Cleve- 
land, through  Columbus,  to  Cincinnati.  By 
this  line  of  country,  we  ought,  in  fact,  to  have 
come  ;  but,  as  I  have  said,  the  books  of  last 
year  could  not  tell  us  of  it,  as  the  railway  did 
not  then  exist ;  and,  in  truth,  we  were  beyond 
all  guide-book  information.  The  Cleveland 
and  Columbus  road  had  carried  off  most  of  the 
traffic    through    Sandusky ;    and   our  railway 


172  THE  WABASH. 

had,  therefore,  been  allowed  to  get  somewhat 
out  of  repair.  We  were  a  good  deal  shaken, 
though  not  "snaked"  as  sometimes  happens ; 
when  the  iron  hooping  that  is  nailed  to  sleepers, 
in  some  instances,  for  the  cars  to  run  on  instead 
of  rails,  when  this  iron  hooping  becomes  de- 
tached, and  curling  itself  up,  enters  through 
the  floor  of  a  car  and  twists  itself  on  and  on 
amongst  or  through  the  passengers,  missing  or 
spitting  them  like  larks,  till  it  goes  out  at  the 
other  end  or  through  the  roof.  We  were  not 
snaked;  and  we  consoled  ourselves  for  the 
jolting  and  slowness  of  our  train,  by  consider- 
ing that>  owing  to  the  competition,  we  had 
been  brought  from  Buffalo  to  Sandusky,  and 
from  Sandusky  to  Cincinnati,  a  distance  of 
four  hundred  and  fifty- eight  miles,  for  three 
dollars,  or  twelve  shillings  and  sixpence  a-head: 
state  saloons,  "  bride's  room",  eating  on  board, 
and  first  class  railway  all  included.'* 

*  This  calculation  would  be  exact  had  we  all  paid  as  grown 
up  passengers.  But  all  through  this  journey,  seven  of  us  were 
considered  as  children,  and,  therefore  paid  half-price  only.  The 
father,  mother,  and  eleven  children,  travelled  as  nine  and  a 
half  grown  persons — Louie  and  Agnes  being  classed  among  the 
babies. 


CHAP.  VI. LAKE  ERIE.  173 

From  Xenia,  where  the  Columbus  train 
joined  us,  we  went  on  more  rapidly ;  but  the 
cars  were  more  crowded;  we  were  getting 
tired  ;  the  evening  closed  in ;  and  we  could 
only  occasionally  get  glimpses  of  water  gliding 
swiftly  in  the  starlight  amid  high  banks  and 
overhanging  trees.  This,  we  were  told,  was 
the  Little  Miami  river;  and  that  the  scenery 
about  it  was  pretty.  Porters  and  boys  of  every 
size  soon  made  an  irruption  into  the  cars,  re- 
commending different  hotels  in  Cincinnati.  I 
selected  one  who  wore  a  label  showing  that  he 
belonged  to  the  far-famed  Burnet  House  hotel ; 
and  I  was  assured,  by  some  gentlemanly  fel- 
low-passengers who  had  kindly  given  me  much 
information,  that  I  might  trust  him  with  my 
forty-two  brass  checks  with  which  to  claim  my 
baggage.  The  cars  at  length  stopped ;  omni- 
buses, the  only  conveyances  at  the  station, 
were  in  waiting  from  each  hotel ;  that  of  the 
Burnet  House  was  filled  before  I  could  collect 
my  party,  and  we  had  to  await  its  return.  It 
came,  and,  for  this  second  trip,  we  had  it  all 
to  ourselves.  "  It  was,"  writes  Lucy,  who  had 
never  seen  the  inside  of  an  omnibus  before. 


174  THE  WABASH. 

"  like  a  very  respectably- fitted  up  covered 
waggon,  with  cushions  on  the  benches  which 
ran  all  round  it." 

Thoroughly  tired,  we  were  set  down  at  the 
foot  of  the  handsome  flight  of  steps  leading  up 
to  the  Burnet  House  hotel,  where  I  had  to  pay 
the  porter  three  and  a  half  dollars  for  bringing 
my  luggage  from  the  station ;  or  two-and-six- 
pence  more  than  I  had  paid  for  the  carriage 
and  food  of  myself  for  the  last  four  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  miles. 

We  were  all  soon  asleep  in  not  very  com- 
fortable rooms. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


CINCINNATI. 

The  Burnet  House  hotel.— The  Queen  City  of  the  West.— Bill 
of  fare  in  Ohio. — The  cathedral. — The  Catholics. — The  au- 
thor's politico-religious  creed. — The  calendar. — The  ecclesi- 
astical seminary. — The  upper  crust  of  Cincinnati. — Search 
for  a  location. — Porkopolis. — The  ladies'  saloon. — Honorary 
titles. — The  banker. — Hours  of  business. — Engravings  on 
paper  money. 

We  had  not  been  able  to  get  to  bed  until  two 
hours  and  a-half  after  midnight ;  and  we  arose 
this  morning  dissatisfied  with  our  rooms,  and 
resolved  to  change  them  or  the  hotel.  When 
we  went  down  to  breakfast,  we  could  not  but 
admire  the  arrangement  and  architecture  of 
the  building,  which  was  more  like  a  church 
on  the  outside,  and  a  London  club  house 
within,  than  like  an  hotel  according  to  Eu- 
ropean notions.  It  was  nothing  very  extra- 
ordinary in  the  United  States :  although  in  the 
first-class  of  hotels  even  there.  A  broad  flight 
of  steps,  in  the  middle  of  a  lofty  basement, 
surrounded  with  a  stone  balustrade,  led  up  to 


176  THE  WABASH. 

a  large  building  three,  four,  and  five  stories 
high,  with  a  centre  and  double  wings;  the 
centre,  which  was  five  stories  high,  was  again 
surmounted  by  a  dome  and  lantern,  from 
which  rose  a  nag-staff  bearing  a  wide  banner. 
The  inside  arrangement  corresponded  with 
the  outside  ;  the  entrance  hall  was  good  ;  the 
stairs  were  good.  The  ladies'  drawing-rooms 
were  large  and  very  handsomely  fitted  up. 
The  carpets  in  most  of  these  hotels  and  steam- 
boats are  peculiarly  rich. 

We  had  been  told  that  breakfast  could  be 
had  from  seven  to  ten  o'clock.  We  were, 
therefore,  rather  late,  and  breakfasted  alone 
in  a  large,  handsome  eating  room  ;  waited 
upon  by  a  dozen  free  blacks,  in  snow-white 
jackets,  who  received  us  with  that  ease  and  po- 
liteness, which  is  so  peculiar  to  the  free  blacks 
of  the  United  States.  I  will  not  say  that  they 
seem  to  be  the  gentry  of  America;  but 
certainly  their  manners  have  a  suavity  and 
prevenance,  on  the  absence  of  which  the  Irish 
and  German  waiters  seem  to  pride  themselves. 

After  breakfast,   I  wished   to  make   some 
arrano-ement  for  other  rooms,  and  to  settle  the 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  177 

price  at  which  my  family  was  to  be  boarded : 
but  here  I  was  met  by  the  inconvenience  of 
these  great  establishments.  The  proprietor 
could  not  personally  attend  to  everything  and 
every  one  ;  perhaps  he  did  not  attend  to  any- 
thing or  any  body ;  and  his  authority  was 
delegated  to  clerks  and  waiters,  who  were 
either  fussy  or  indifferent.  I  found  no  great 
wish  to  oblige  in  the  matter  of  the  bed- rooms, 
and  a  saucy  independence  as  to  the  terms. 
The  waiters  ran  off  hither  and  thither, — too 
busy  to  attend  to  a  mere  Britisher  with  his 
wife  and  eleven  children.  I  left  them  and 
walked  out. 

I  threaded  a  number  of  streets,  drawn  at 
right  angles,  most  of  which  were  paved  in 
the  centre  and  had  side  pavements  of  brick, 
shaded  by  rows  of  small  sycamore  trees.  Busi- 
ness took  me  to  a  Colonel .      I  had  no 

letter  of  recommendation  to  him  ;  but  he  filled 
some  public  department  on  which  I  wished 
for  information,  and  I  introduced  myself  to 
his  office.  He  received  me  with  a  frankness 
and  an  evident  wish  to  be  of  service,  which  an 
Englishman  would  have   thought  derogatory 


178  THE  WABASH. 

to  himself;  but  the  Americans  seem  to  be  a 
thoroughly  good-natured  and  good-hearted 
people.  He  gave  me  all  the  information  I 
needed,  and  then  said,  "  But  I  had  heard  of 
you  before.  Some  friends  of  mine  came  home 
in  the  cars  last  night,  and  they  told  me  of  a 
great  British  family  that  had  arrived.  Where 
are  you  located  V 

I  told  him  at  the  Burnet  House,  when  he 
lifted  up  his  hands,  and  said,  "  Well  now,  I 
guess  that  you  had  better  get  out  of  that 
before  the  day  is  out.  Why,  you  will  be 
ruined  !  I  don't  know  what  your  means  are  ; 
but,  whatever  they  are,  with  all  those  chil- 
dren, and  one  more  whom  you  say  is  coming 
from  England,  you  must  have  something  else 
to  do  with  your  money  than  to  squander  it  in 
hotels.  It  is  an  excellent  house,  mind ;  a 
fashionable  house  ;  I  myself  should  certainly 
go  to  it,  if  I  had  need  to  go  to  any  hotel  in 
Cincinnati,  and  were  alone ;  but  I  would  never 
think  of  taking  my  lady  and  family  there. 
Go  and  look  out  for  another  hotel  directly." 

We  shook  hands ;  and  I  went  and  called  on 
another  friend,  who  gave  me  the  same  advice. 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  179 

The  town  of  Cincinnati,  in  the  year  1800, 
contained  a  population  of  seven  hundred  in- 
habitants:  in  1840,  its  population  was  forty- 
seven  thousand:  in  1850,  it  was  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  thousand.  It  is  built  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Ohio  river ;  and  is  about  one 
thousand  miles  from  New  York  and  from 
Boston ;  or,  as  one  ought  now  to  reckon  dis- 
tances, sixty-seven  hours.  It  stands  upon  a 
double  platform  gently  rising  from  the  river  ; 
and  is  again  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  lofty  and 
picturesque  hills  that  appear  immediately  be- 
yond its  streets.  Some  of  the  streets  run  up 
the  sides  of  these  hills :  and  in  them,  I  was 
informed,  reside  the  "  upper  crust"  of  the  so- 
ciety of  Cincinnati.  The  broad  stream  of  the 
Ohio  circles  round  the  base  of  the  mountains 
and  of  the  town  ;  and  two  suburbs,  containing 
about  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  rise  on  its 
opposite  bank — though  that  bank  be  in  the 
slave  state  of  Kentucky.  Floating  wharves  are 
adapted  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  river,  so 
that  merchandise  can,  at  all  times,  be  landed 
and  embarked  without  difficulty.  Steam-boats 
line  its  quays  and   cover  its  waters.     About 


180  THE  WABASH. 

one  hundred  and  fifty  are  owned  by  merchants 
of  the  town.  The  imports  of  Cincinnati  are 
worth  fifty  millions,  her  exports  fifty-six  mil- 
lions of  dollars  a-year :  and  upwards  of  two 
hundred  steam  engines  are  at  work  in  flour 
mills,  saw  mills,  cotton  foundries,  type  found- 
ries, etc. 

For  the  "  Queen  City  of  the  West"  is  not 
merely  a  commercial  place  ;  it  is  a  seat  of  lite- 
rature also.  There  are  published  here  eleven 
daily  and  twenty-five  weekly  newspapers,  and 
six  monthly  periodicals.  Book  business,  print- 
ing and  stereotyping  are  done  here  with  beauty 
and  neatness. 

We  have  all  heard  of  the  learned  pig.  Hog 
slaughtering  and  pork  packing  is  the  next 
important  of  all  the  trades  of  Cincinnati.  They 
have  slaughter  and  packing  houses  which  en- 
able them  to  dispose  of  twenty  thousand  hogs 
per  day  ;  but  as  the  weather  necessarily  re- 
stricts the  season  to  about  twelve  weeks,  and 
as  there  must  be  many  unpropitious  days  even 
in  these,  they  can  seldom  get  through  more 
than  four  hundred  thousand  hogs  a-year ! 

Nor  is  religion  forgotten  by  the  inhabitants 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  181 

of  Cincinnati.  Sixty  churches  are  devoted  to 
different  modes  of  worship.  Of  these,  twelve 
are  Catholic  ;  two  are  Jewish  ;  four  are  epis- 
copal ;  the  others  are  dedicated  to  the  promul- 
gation of  what,  in  England,  are  called  different 
modes  of  dissent.  In  nine  churches,  the  ser- 
vice is  performed  in  German. 

A  busy,  smoking,  reeking  place  Cincinnati 
thus  very  necessarily  appeared  to  us  during 
this  first  morning's  walk  ;  the  sun  was  very 
hot ;  and  I  found  the  air  impregnated  with  an 
oppressive  odour  which  I  could  not  under- 
stand. We  returned  to  the  Burnet  House  to 
dinner  at  two  o'clock.  About  one  hundred 
people  were  seated  in  the  dining  room  :  the 
women  were,  as  a  matter  of  course  in  America, 
very  stylishly  and  flauntingly  drest :  many  of 
the  men  sat  in  brown  holland  frock  coats.  A 
crowd  of  black  waiters  were  in  attendance  and 
guided  us  to  our  places.  Beside  my  plate,  I 
found  a  printed  sheet,  which  I  copy  verbatim, 
though  I  cannot  give  the  engraving  of  the 
hotel  which  headed  it : 


182 


THE  WABASH. 


Breakfast . 


BURNET  HOUSE. 
A.  B.  COLEMAN,  PROPRIETOR. 

HOURS    FOB,   MEALS. 

7  to  10         Tea    .... 


1 
2* 


Supper    9  to  12 


Dinner — Gents'  ordinary   ... 

Ladies'  ordinary  ...  «g 

^^  Servants  and  children — Breakfast  at  7  ;  Dine  at  1  ; 
and  Tea  at  6. 


^H^    PRIVATE  SERVANTS  NOT  ALLOWED   IN   THE  ORDINARIES. 


gjgf  Children  occupying  seats  at  table  will  be  charged  full  price. 


gUf  All  meals,  lunches,  &c,  sent  to  rooms  will  be  charged 
extra.  ,^§! 


BILL  OF  FARE. 


^gf  No  gong  will  be  sounded  for  breakfast,  jg^ 


Vermicelli  soup. 


BOILED  DISHES. 

Ham. 

Corned  Beef. 

Tongues. 

Jole  and  Cabbage. 

Chickens  and  Pork. 


Calf's  Head,  brain  sauce. 
Chicken  Salads. 


Chicken  soup  with  crust. 


ROAST  DISHES. 

Pork,  apple  sauce. 

Beef. 

Lamb,  mint  sauce. 

Spring  Chickens. 

Phipps  Ham,  champagne  sauce. 


Broiled  Sweetbreads  with  Pork. 
Baked  Pork  and  Beans. 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  183 


SIDE  DISHES. 

Lamb  cutlets  in  paper. 

Fillets  of  Pork  with  Asparagus. 

Charlotte  of  Apples,  French  style. 

Minced  Salt  Fish  Baked. 

Breast  of  Lamb,  Breaded. 

Blanquettes  of  Veal  in  a  Border  of  Potatoe. 

Kidneys  on  a  Form  of  Bread. 

Macaroni  in  Forms  and  Plain. 

Veal  cutlets,  Italian  style. 

Stewed  Lamb  with  fine  vegetables. 

Pies  Garnished  with  Poached  Eggs. 

Croquettes  of  Beef  Tongue. 

Fricasseed  Chicken  with  Peas. 

Ragout  of  Mutton  with  Asparagus. 


RELISHES. 

Pickles.  Lettuce.  Horse  Radish. 

Rhubarb  sauce.  Cucumbers. 


VEGETABLES. 


Boiled  Potatoes. 
Onions. 


Beets. 


Boiled  Rice. 
Cabbage. 
Homony. 
Peas. 


Currant  Pies.  |     Pumpkin  Pies. 

Custard  Pudding.  Charlotte  Kisses. 

Iced  Lemon  Cakes.         Almond  Kisses. 


DESSERT. 

Almonds.  Raisins.  Prunes. 

Strawberries.  Pecan  Nuts.         Hickory  Nuts. 

Ice  Cream. 

Thursday,  June  12,  1851. 


184  THE  WABASH. 

What  thinkest  thou,  reader,  of  a  dinner  in 
the  back  woods  of  America,  one  thousand 
miles  from  Boston  or  New  York  1  The  cook- 
ing of  the  dishes,  such  as  they  were,  was  very 
good ;  and  the  waiting  excellent.  On  the  re- 
verse side  of  the  Bill  of  Fare,  was  printed  a 
list  of  wines,  with  prices:  port,  sherry,  and 
Madeira,  about  double  what  they  would  be 
in  England ;  champagne,  claret,  and  Rhine 
wines,  about  the  same  as  on  the  continent  of 
Europe.  But  not  one  person  in  twenty  drank 
anything  but  iced  water:  the  others  took 
champagne.  The  early  dinner  hour  of  Ame- 
rica precludes  drinking  ;  and  to  sit  more  than 
twenty  minutes  at  table  would  interfere  with 
business. 

After  dinner,  we  moved  to  the  Walnut 
Street  House,  a  large  hotel  in  a  more  quiet 
and  airy  part  of  the  town,  that  had  been  much 
recommended  to  me,  and  where  they  engaged 
to  board  us  for  a  week  at  half  the  charge 
made  by  the  Burnet  House  people.  On  the 
following  day,  I  received  a  message  from  the 
latter,  intimating  that,  if  I  would  return  to 
them,  they  would  be  glad  to  take  us  in  on 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  185 

terms  which,  had  they  proposed  them  before, 
I  should  have  assented  to.  It  was  now  too 
late.  We  were  well  satisfied  with  the  Walnut 
Street  House.  We  had  not  the  "  ice"  and 
the  "  kisses"  of  the  other  bill  of  fare  ;  but 
our  table  was  well  supplied,  and  our  younger 
children  were  all  allowed  to  dine  with  us  ; 
this  was  very  soothing  to  the  dignity  of  the 
elder  of  them,  and  was  a  satisfactory  change 
to  all. 

In  the  map  or  plan  of  Cincinnati,  I  had 
seen  a  large  space  marked  as  "  The  Cathe- 
dral". I  made  my  way  towards  it,  and  found 
that  it  was  a  Catholic  church.  While  in 
England,  I  had  corresponded  with  Archbishop 
Purcell :  telling  him  my  plans  for  my  boys, 
and  that  I  had  thoughts  of  sending  some  of 
them  to  be  educated  in  the  country  of  their 
future  home.  I  had  been  much  pleased  by 
the  interest  he  had  very  kindly  expressed  in 
them.  I  now  regretted  to  find  that  His  Grace 
was  himself  in  Europe  ;  but  his  brother,  the 
Very  Reverend  Edward  Purcell,  was  at  home, 
and  received  me  with  open  arms, — with  Irish 
warmth  and  American  frankness.    He  showed 


186  THE    WABASH. 

me  over  the  cathedral,  which  was,  as  my 
Guide  Book  said,  a  very  handsome  building : 
being  two  hundred  feet  long,  by  eighty  feet 
broad,  and  sixty  feet  high.  Inside,  the  effect 
is  very  chaste,  simple,  and  imposing.  A  noble 
altar,  of  pure  Carara  marble,  stands  in  its 
place  at  the  west  end.  A  few  good  paintings 
adorn  the  walls.  The  roof  is  supported  by 
handsome  Corinthian  pillars.  The  order  of 
the  exterior  architecture  is  less  defined  ;  Mr. 
Purcell  insisted  that  it  was  American  ;  it  had 
a  lofty  spire,  and  was,  altogether,  a  very  cre- 
ditable and  handsome  pile. 

The  Catholic  religion  was  making  immense 
progress  in  the  state  of  Ohio.  About  one-half 
of  the  population  of  Cincinnati  is  Catholic. 
Besides  the  twelve  Catholic  churches  in  the 
town,  seven  others  were  in  its  immediate  vi- 
cinity ;  and  the  religion  seemed  to  be  going 
a-head  quite  as  much  as  everything  else  in 
the  country.  The  archbishop  himself  being 
an  American,  and  a  man  of  business  and  of 
zeal  tempered  by  prudence  and  liberality,  was 
highly  spoken  of  by  all  the  people  of  the  state, 
and  they  seemed  to  be  proud  of  him  as  a 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  187 

countryman.     His  reverend  brother  partakes 
his  views,  and  admirably  seconds  them. 

For  however  timidly  the  Catholic  hierarchy 
in  Europe  may  have  allied  itself  to  civil  go- 
vernments, and  have  allowed  itself  to  be  con- 
sidered the  upholder  of  despotism  and  the  foe 
to  progress,  Catholics  in  America  are  able  to 
declare,  as  M.  de  Montalembert  has  declared  in 
France,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  spirit  of 
their  religion  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  freedom ; 
that  the  fullest  civil  rights  may  be  asserted 
and  exercised  by  the  most  devotional  mind ; 
and  that  religion  and  temporal  policies  are 
quite  independent  the  one  of  the  other.  In 
the  United  States  of  America,  all  religions 
have  a  fair  field  and  no  favour ;  and  Catholics 
there  ask  for  nothing  more.  Where  no  man  is 
taxed  to  support  what  he  believes  to  be  ano- 
ther man's  error,  religious  charity  only  can 
lead  one  man  to  interest  himself  in  the  reli- 
gious opinions  of  another  man.  The  fire  of 
religious  discord  must  lack  fuel  where  no  reli- 
gion can  boast  of  state  patronage.  Nations 
and  bodies  of  men  do  not  quarrel  or  fight  to 
get  to  heaven,  but  for  the  loaves  and  fishes  to 


188  THE  WABASH. 

be  eaten  on  the  road,  or  for  the  full  liberty  of 
going  thither  by  whichever  road  they  fancy — 
or  elsewhere.  The  political  principles  of  the 
United  States  are  in  accordance  with  these 
convictions ;  and  amid  such,  the  Catholic  faith 
prospers. 

"  Deorura  injuria?  Diis  curre — Let  the  gods 
avenge  their  own  wrongs,"  wisely  said  Tibe- 
rius. 

"  Let  each  one  mind  his  own  affairs  and 
pay  for  his  own  priest  and  doctor  if  he  wants 
one,"  says  the  statesman. 

"  Agreed,"  assents  the  religionist :  "  I  agree 
that  the  State  shall  look  upon  us  as  citizens 
only  ;  that  it  shall  have  no  right  to  inquire, 
and  shall  not  inquire  what  are  our  individual 
opinions,  or  whether  we  believe  ourselves  even 
to  have  souls  or  not :  but  I  myself  do  believe 
in  one  particular  religion,  and  I  think  it  my 
duty  to  try  and  persuade  others  to  believe  it 
also." 

"  Practice,  teach,  preach  whatever  you  like," 
reiterates  the  statesman  :  "  I,  as  a  statesman, 
am  not  particularly  inspired  to  know  whether 
your  opinions  are  right  or  wrong  ;  and  as  a 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI,  189 

statesman  merely,  I  do  not  care.  It  is  no 
affair  of  mine — provided  only  that  you  do  not 
disturb  the  public  peace.  If  you  do,  I  shall 
come  down  upon  you  all  alike." 

"  Hurrah,  for  liberty  of  conscience  !"  cries 
the  citizen. 

"  Magna  est  Veritas  et  prevalebit — truth  is 
great  and  it  will  prevail"!  ejaculates  the  reli- 
gionist. 

"  And,  if  it  is  not  true,  it  ought  not  to  pre- 
vail," concludes  the  philosopher. 

The  Queen  City  of  the  West  has  not,  any 
more  than  Buffalo,  arrived  at  that  degree  of 
civilisation  which  should  have  taught  it  to 
number  its  houses :  and  it  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive the  troublesome  and  intricate  method  of 
giving  directions  in  use  here.  For  example  : 
you  are  told  that  you  will  find  St.  Xavier's 
church  in  "  Sycamore  Street,  between  Sixth 
and  Seventh  Streets  : "  such  an  one  lives  in 
"  Main  Street,  between  Court  and  Canal ;"  and 
another  "  in  Race  Street,  between  Thirteenth 
and  Fourteenth  Streets  ;"  another,  at  "  foot  of 
Warren  Street,  near  Fourth  Street."  We  are 
told  that  the  first  thing  the  French  allied  army 


190 


THE    WABASH. 


did  on  landing  at  Gallipoli  was  to  paint  names 
to  the  several  streets  and  numbers  on  the 
houses.  I  hope  the  resident  of  the  United 
States  at  Constantinople,  after  experiencing 
the  improvement,  will  write  home  and  recom- 
mend the  plan  to  his  countrymen. 

I  bought  an  almanac  at  Cincinnati,  and  re- 
ferring to  it,  to  see  at  what  time  the  sun  rose 
and  set,  1  was  certainly  taken  aback  and 
startled  by  the  evidence  it  afforded  of  the 
greatness  of  the  country.  Instead  of  one  co- 
lumn, which  is  sufficient  to  give  that  intelli- 
gence in  any  state  in  Europe,  four  columns 
were  here  required  for  the  same  purpose ! 
Thus,  on  Hth  June  1851, 


Calendar  for 

Boston:  N.Eng- 

land,  N.  York 

State,    Michi- 

gan,   Wiscon- 

sin and  Iowa. 

Sun 

Sun 

rises 

sets 

4.24 

7.35 

Calendar  for 
"N.  York  City, 
Conn. :  New- 
Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvan.,  Ohio, 
Indiana  and 
Illi's. 

Sun  I  Sun 
rises  sets 
4.30         7.30 


Calendar  for 

Baltimore, 

Virginia, 

Kentucky 

and 
Missouri. 


Sun 

Sun 

Sun 

Sun 

rises 

sets 

rises 

sets 

4.34 

7.26 

4.53 

7.6 

Calendar  for 
Charleston,  N. 
Caroli.,Tenn., 
Geo.,  Alaba- 
ma, Miss,  and 
Louisiana. 


Truly  it  is  a  mighty  country !  The  American 
eagle  sits  on  the  top  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  dips  his  beak  in  the  Atlantic  and  his  tail 
in   the  Pacific  :    he   stretches  one  wing   over 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  191 

Canada  the  other  over  Mexico,  and  he  holdeth 
the  continent  in  his  claws ! 

It  was  sad  news  to  us,  on  arriving  at  Cin- 
cinnati, to  find  that  Asiatic  cholera  was  making 
its  appearance  again  in  the  city.  They  had 
suffered  from  it  severely  in  the  preceding  year. 
The  papers,  also,  informed  us  that  it  was  strong 
on  the  line  of  the  Mississippi  river;  and  this  had 
made  us  the  more  anxious  to  halt  at  Cincin- 
nati before  we  went  on  to  St.  Louis.  I  wished 
to  make  it  my  head  quarters  while  studying 
the  capabilities  of  the  land  of  the  neighbour- 
ing countries  :  and  we  looked  out  for  a  house 
in  which  to  place  our  family.  A  furnished 
house  could  no  more  be  rented  here  than  at 
Bordeaux  :  nay,  even  unfurnished  houses  were 
not  to  be  had.  They  cannot  build  them  as 
fast  as  they  are  wanted  for  their  own  occupa- 
tion. I  inquired  for  one  of  the  nice  looking 
houses  on  the  hills,  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  with  trim  gardens  about  them,  and 
which  enjoyed  splendid  views :  but  I  was  in- 
formed that  all  those  belonged  to  "  the  upper 
crust"  of  the  town,  and  that  they  were  not  to 
be  let.     One,  indeed,  of  these  was  offered  to 


192  THE    WABASH. 

me  ;  but  I  discovered  that  six  people  had  died 
in  it  of  the  cholera  during  the  last  summer. 
The  upper  crust  owner  of  this  one  puffed  it, 
therefore,  in  vain. 

My  friend,  the  Very  Rev.  Edward  Purcell, 
called  on  me  in  his  buggy  and  took  me  out  to 
see  the  ecclesiastical  seminary  that  had  been 
lately  built  by  his  brother,  the  archbishop. 
We  passed  out  of  the  town  and  along  a  very 
dusty  road,  which,  in  other  respects,  was  not 
a  bad  one,  though  occasionally  mended  with 
planks.  We  passed  numerous  tea-gardens, 
and  rose  among  the  hills.  The  scenery  be- 
came very  varied ;  the  hills  were  steep  and 
broken.  We  circled  about  them,  to  catch 
different  points  of  view ;  and,  at  length,  came 
to  the  Seminary.  It  was  a  large,  handsome 
building,  only  just  completed:  as  yet,  it  was 
unfurnished,  uninhabited  ;  the  classes  were 
not  yet  organised :  all  this  was  to  be  done 
when  the  archbishop  should  return  from  Eu- 
rope. The  rooms  were  very  large  and  lofty. 
We  passed  through  them  all  and  out  upon  the 
shingle  roof:  for,  be  it  known,  that  tiles  and 
slates   are  here  made   of  Avood,  which,  being 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  193 

covered  with  gas  tar,  look  as  well  as  stone  and, 
I  believe,  last  a  matter  of  thirty  years.  The 
masters  of  the  vessels  that  trade  from  New 
York  to  Newfoundland  or  New  Orleans,  are 
said,  by  the  captains  of  outward  bound  vessels, 
to  drop  such  on  the  sea  as  they  go  along,  in 
order  that  they  may  be  able  to  find  their  way 
back  again  ;  as  Jack  the  Giant  Killer  dropped 
marbles  from  his  pockets. 

The  view  from  this  seminary  was  magnifi- 
cent. On  the  edge  of  one  of  the  highest  hills 
where  they  encircle  Cincinnati,  it  overlooked 
pretty  glens,  to  the  right  and  left,  and  the 
whole  of  the  busy,  reeking  city  underneath  ; 
it  overlooked  the  blue  river  winding  between 
it  and  its  opposite  suburbs, — winding  between 
the  cultivated  hills  of  Ohio  and  the  green 
forest-clad  mountains  of  Kentucky.  It  was  a 
beautiful  prospect. 

I  urged  Mr.  Purcell  to  allow  me  to  rent 
and  inhabit  the  seminary,  that  we  might  enjoy 
the  views  and  the  pure  air  that  breathed 
around.  We  would  furnish  our  floor,  and 
surrender  the  whole  so  soon  as  it  was  needed 
for   ecclesiastical  purposes.      He  laughed  off 


194  THE    WABASH. 

my  request.  I  know  not  why  he  hesitated  to 
grant  it.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  our  plan 
of  spending  some  time  in  America,  and  of 
settling  our  boys  there,  was  a  fancy  that  would 
soon  pass  away.  "  It  would  never  suit  your 
evident  habits  and  ideas,"  he  said  to  my  wife. 
"  The  only  chance  of  getting  along  for  such 
as  you,  would  be  for  you  to  go  into  a  slave 
state.  You  will  not  find  here  the  servants 
and  the  manners  necessary  to  what  you  think 
your  comforts." 

Yet  in  his  love  and  admiration  of  America 
and  of  the  character  of  the  natives,  Mr.  Purcell 
was  enthusiastic.  He  declared  them  to  be  the 
most  kind-hearted  people  in  the  world :  pas- 
sionate, to  a  degree  that  would  terrify,  but 
their  anger  soon  wearing  away.  Religious  \ 
— that  was  their  own  affair  :  he  spoke  not  as  an 
ecclesiastic :  the  men  had  not  time  to  think  of 
religion :  but  they  were  without  prejudices  ; 
frank  ;  intelligent.  He  was  fond  of  consider- 
ing himself  an  American  ;  although,  in  real 
fact,  I  believe  he  is  Irish-born.  He  cannot  be 
an  American  ;  otherwise,  according  to  his  own 
showing,  he  would  have  long  since  forgotten 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  195 

his  anger  against  me  for  that  I  remonstrated 
with  him  for  having  removed  my  sons  from 
college  to  college  without  my  sanction  or 
knowledge. 

I  made  inquiries  about  the  purchase  of  land; 
and  was  informed  that  the  State  no  longer  pos- 
sessed any  great  quantity  in  Ohio  :  that  all 
had  been  sold  except  some  small  portions  in 
the  north  :  and  that  the  office  for  the  sale  of 
public  lands  had,  therefore,  been  removed  to 
Defiance,  as  being  nearest  to  the  tracts  still 
undisposed  off.  The  town  of  Defiance,  how- 
ever, is  on  the  Maumee  river,  in  a  marshy  and 
unhealthy  part  of  the  country ;  and,  on  this 
account,  it  was  that  these  public  lands  still 
hung  on  hand. 

I  went  to  some  of  the  many  private  estate 
agencies  in  Cincinnati  and  heard  of  several 
desirable  locations,  confirmatory  of  the  opinion 
I  had  formed  of  the  soil  as  I  travelled  in  the 
railway  cars  from  Sandusky.  All  agreed  that 
the  country  about  Chilicothe  and  on  the  Scioto 
River,  flowing  from  Columbus  to  the  Ohio, 
was  as  rich  as  any  in  North  America :  but  all 
agreed,  also,  that  the  proprietors  of  it  knew 


196  THE  WABASH. 

its  value  ;  and  that  it  would  cost  as  much  per 
acre  as  good  laud  in  England. 

I  was  pursuaded  to  go  and  see  an  estate 
somewhere  near  Cincinnati : — a  most  desir- 
able, paying  property,  that  was  to  be  had  very 
cheap.  I  hired  a  buggy  and,  with  my  wife, 
started  to  find  it — being  duly  warned  that,  in 
driving,  I  was  always  to  take  and  keep  on  the 
right  side  of  the  road.  We  left  the  town  and 
were  soon  involved  in  a  romantic  ravine  amid 
some  beautiful  hills.    A  steep  ascent  led  us  to 

the  top  of  them,  and  we  inquired  for  a  Dr. , 

I  forget  his  name :  but  he  had  been  de- 
scribed as  "  a  very  fine  gentleman";  and  we  ex- 
pected to  find  something  quite  ';  upper  crust". 
We  passed  before  a  handsome  building  which, 
I  was  told,  was  the  Ohio  State  Agricultural 
College  ;  and,  after  inquiring  at  a  pretty  cot- 
tage surrounded  by  a  garden, in  which  roses  and 
vines,  intertwined,  shaded  delicious  arbours, 
we  were  directed  to  another,  where  we  found 
a  shabby  little  man,  who  got  upon  a  shabby 
little  horse  and  scampered  wildly  about  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.  At  length,  he  returned 
with  the  Doctor,  who  was  not  unlike  himself 
— except,  perhaps,  that  he  looked  still  more 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  197 

dirty  and  shabby.  The  two  together  harnessed 
the  shabby  little  horse  to  a  shabby  little  buggy, 
and  whipped  it  away  along  a  sandy  road,  de- 
siring us  to  follow.  They  talked  incessantly  as 
I  did  so — asking  every  imaginable  question : 
and  though  I  did  not  quite  do  like  my  Frank, 
who,  after  we  had  told  our  children  to  reply  to 
all  inquiries  that  they  did  not  know,  told  an 
inquisitive  American  that  he  did  not  know  his 
own  name,  that  he  did  not  know  where  he  came 
from,  that  he  did  not  know  who  were  his 
father  and  mother  nor  how  many  brothers 
and  sisters  he  had — although,  I  say,  t  did  not 
quite  answer  like  Frank,  I  flattered  myself 
that  the  Doctor  and  his  friend  got  little  out  of 
me.  I  myself  discovered  that  they  were  parti 
ners,  and  had  taken  the  land  in  question  in 
some  business  transaction  for  a  bad  debt. 

We  hastened  on  between  worm  fences  and 
by  various  lanes  ;  and,  at  length,  pulled  up  by 
the  road  side.  We  were  to  dismount.  This 
was  the  location.  Where  X  The  clearing  and 
the  woods  behind,  and  the  buildings.  We 
clambered  over  the  fences  and  inspected  the 
farm  buildings ;  one  small  barn  and  a  shed,  both 


198  THE    WABASH. 

falling  to  pieces.  We  made  our  way  through 
the  tangled  weeds  and  briers  that  encumbered 
a  young  orchard,  and  over  another  fence  into 
two  or  three  ploughed  fields.  This  was  all 
the  cleared  land — about  sixty  acres. 

There  were  some  three  hundred  acres  of 
wood  ;  fine  oak  timber.  All  the  soil  was  a 
good  strong  loam  ;  rather  too  stiff.  What 
was  the  price  1  The  doctor  and  his  friend  had 
taken  the  whole  at  one  hundred  dollars  per 
acre ;  they  would  sell  all  in  one  lot  at  one 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars. 

We  returned  to  Cincinnati,  and  I  reported 
to  my  friends  what  I  had  seen.  They  did  not 
think  there  had  been  anything  so  cheap  within 
six  miles  of  the  town. 

"  Cheap  %  why  it  comes  to  twenty -five  pounds 
sterling  per  acre.  What  interest  would  it 
bring  in  X 

"  Interest !  you  must  not  exactly  look  to 
that.  It  is  fine  timber,  and  would  almost  pay 
the  expense  of  cutting  down  and  clearing  the 
ground.  You  might  get  some  interest  for 
your  money  by  growing  vegetables  and  fruit 
for    the   town.      But  you  must  look  to  sub- 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  199 

dividing  it ;  and  to  the  increase  in  the  value  of 
all  property.  It  will  be  worth  twice  as  much 
in  four  years  time.  Oh,  it  is  wonderfully  cheap ; 
and  if  you  don't  buy  it,  I  think  I  shall." 

I  gave  my  friend  full  liberty  to  do  so ;  as  I 
had  no  intention  either  of  setting  up  as  a 
market  gardener  at  Cincinnati,  or  of  specu- 
lating on  the  improvement  of  property  in  the 
pig-killing  metropolis. 

For,  at  last,  we  had  found  out  that  the  reek- 
ing stench,  as  of  hot  seething  fat,  which  had 
annoyed  and  puzzled  us  since  our  arrival  in 
Cincinnati,  arose  from  the  hog  slaughter 
houses.  Evening  after  evening,  it  was  drawn 
up  by  the  hot  sun,  and  borne  by  the  clammy 
breeze  to  our  windows,  where  flies  buzzed  and 
enjoyed  themselves.  Fancy  the  steam  that 
must  arise  in  the  hot  summer  weather  even 
from  empty  houses  in  which  twenty  thousand 
hogs  have  been  slaughtered  each  day  in  the 
winter !     Faugh ! 

Meanwhile  we  were  domesticating  ourselves 
in  our  Walnut-street  hotel,  and  were  getting 
the  people  a  little  more  into  our  ways.  Hus- 
band and  wife — more  united  than  those  of  the 


20Q  THE    WABASH. 

continent  of  Europe — always  occupy  the  same 
room  and  the  same  bed  in  the  United  States; 
and  I  had  had  some  difficulty  in  persuading 
the   porters    that    separate    basins  and  ewers 
were  needed  for  them.     I  succeeded  at  last, 
though  with    difficulty  ;    for   the  porters  and 
waiters    were    Irish    emigrants,   who,   having 
doubtless  spent  their  lives  with  the  pig  on  a 
mud   floor,   all   alike   undefiled   by  water  at 
home,  felt  that  the  carrying  of  water  to  our 
rooms  impeded  the  digestion  of  the  full  meals 
that   pampered    their   insolence   in  America. 
The    Irish   in    Ireland    may  be    the    "  finest 
peasantry  in   the  world ; "  certainly  the  Irish 
in   England  show  attachment,    affection    and 
gratitude  to  those  who  befriend  or  even  treat 
them  fairly ;  if  such  be  the  national  character 
at  home, it  is  wonderfully  changed  in  its  passage 
across  the  Atlantic.     One  would  be  inclined 
to  think  that,  like  wild  animals,  it  can  be  only 
tamed  by  starvation;  and  that  when  once  it 
has  tasted  meat  and  knows  that  it  can  never 
want  again,  its  nature  exhibits  itself,  like  that 
of  the  cage-bred  tiger  when  first  it  has  lapped 
blood. 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  '201 

My  second  son,  the  eldest  then  with  us,  had 
a  quarrel  with  an  Irish  housemaid  in  this 
hotel,  which  was  near  causing  us  to  change 
our  quarters.  He  was  sitting  one  morning  at 
the  piano  in  the  ladies'  drawing-room,  (and 
every  ladies  drawing-room,  whether  ashore  or 
afloat  in  America,  seems  to  have  a  piano  in  it, 
which  is  thumped  upon  by  all  who  can  play  a 
dozen  notes  by  heart),  he  was  sitting  at  this 
piano,  playing  some  little  air,  when  this  Irish 
housemaid  ordered  him  not  to  touch  it.  A  lad 
of  sixteen  naturally  resented  any  order,  still 
more  an  order  so  uncivilly  given.  A  war  of 
words  ensued,  when  the  wench  called  to  the 
landlord,  who  was  passing.  My  boy  told  him 
not  to  allow  his  servants  to  speak  impertinently, 
and  left  the  room.  The  landlord  did  so  also, 
locking  the  door  after  him,  and  taking  away 
the  key.  Soon  after,  my  wife  and  two  elder 
daughters,  who  had  not  heard  of  this  squabble, 
came  to  the  door,  and  finding  it  locked,  sent 
for  the  key.  The  landlord  appeared,  and  said 
that  the  ladies  sitting-room  was  not  intended 
for  children.  "But,"  said  my  wife,  "  I  wish  to  sit 


202  THE    WABASH. 

there  myself  with  my  daughters  ;  I  presume 
it  is  for  our  use  %  " 

"  The  room,"  replied  Mr.  Sweeny,  "  is  for 
ladies  to  sit  in  when  they  are  dressed  to  receive 
their  visitors ; "  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  cast 
a  rather  supercilious  look  at  the  travelling 
dresses  of  our  party. 

I  came  in  soon  after,  and  was  told  what 
had  happened.  Of  course,  1  went  immedi- 
ately to  Mr.  Sweeney,  and  gave  the  fellow, 
as  the  phrase  is,  a  bit  of  my  mind  ;  as  to 
himself,  his  guests,  and  those  he  had  to  deal 
with.  The  Scotchman,  as  I  believe  he  was, 
though  he  tried  to  pass  himself  off  for  an 
American,  stammered  various  excuses,  and 
went  and  unlocked  the  door. 

But  the  female  vanity  of  "  my  womankind" 
had  been  insulted  by  the  implied  objection  to 
their  dress.  They  would  no  longer  save  the 
trouble  of  the  Irish  porter;  and  they  made 
him  carry  up  to  their  rooms  three  or  four 
heavy  chests  and  imperials.  They  could  not, 
as  Agnes  said,  put  on  "  low  light  muslin  or 
silk  dresses,  and  sham  gilt  bracelets  and  rings  ; 
but  they  dressed  themselves  like  English  ladies, 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  203 

resident  rather  than  travelling.  The  effect 
was  magical  upon  the  vulgar  minds  of  our 
landlord  and  his  crew  ;  and  it  was  impossible 
to  meet  with  greater  deference  than  we  after- 
wards received. 

When  the  master  of  Eton  confided  to  Dr. 
Parr,  that  he  feared  a  "  barring  out "  among 
the  boys,  the  latter  advised  him  "  to  buy  a 
large  cocked  hat — a  tremendously  large  cocked 
hat",  and  quoted 

"  Hi  niotus  aniuioruin  atque  hsec  certaniina  tanta 
Pulveris  exigui  jactu  compressa  quiescent." 

Ignorant  human  nature  is  the  same,  whether 
in  Windsor  forest  or  in  the  backwoods  of 
America. 

It  was  after  this  episode  that  a  certain  Cap- 
tain Trumpbour,  who  sat  in  the  bar-room  and 
managed  the  hotel  for  the  great  Mr.  Sweeney, 
came  to  me,  and,  with  the  greatest  deference, 
begged  to  know  how  he  ought  to  address  me ; 
he  knew  my  name,  he  said  ;  but  it  was  not 
seemly  in  him  to  say  only  Mister ;  "was  it 
Colonel,  or  General,  or  what  ?  "  I  assured  him 
that  I  had  no  claim  to  any  title  whatever.     "  It 


204  THE    WABASH. 

could  not  be  !  It  ought  not  to  be  !  Would 
not  I  assume  one  while  travelling  in  the 
United  States  V  I  told  -  him  that  I  should 
consider  any  title  other  than  that  of  "  Admiral" 
an  affront ;  and,  when  he  was  hastening  to 
bestow  it  on  me,  I  disappointed  him,  by  saying 
that  it  was  not  our  practice  to  assume  rank  or 
office  to  which  we  were  not  entitled.  I  then 
turned  the  conversation  by  asking  him  if  he 
himself  were  in  the  United  States  Navy,  or 
whence  he  had  the  title  of  "  Captain  ",  which, 
I  observed,  every  one  gave  him  ? 

For  a  month  or  two,  he  had  commanded  a 
steamboat  on  the  Ohio  between  Cincinnati 
and  Pittsburgh. 

Messrs.  Beebee  of  New  York  had  given  me, 
not  an  order  on  their  correspondents  here  for 
the  few  thousand  dollars  I  should  want  on  the 
journey ;  but  a  receipt  for  the  same  and  the 
name  of  their  correspondent  at  Cincinnati.  I 
went  to  the  firm  and  found  the  head-partner, 
in  a  brown  holland  jacket  and  vest,  behind 
the  counter,  chewing  tobacco  most  vigorously, 
which  he  offered  to  me.  I  declined ;  and 
stood  and  watched  the  dexterity  with  which 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  205 

he  counted  over  and  examined  a  packet  of 
dollar  notes  which  a  depositor  was  handing  to 
him.  He  counted  and  examined  them  much 
more  rapidly  than  any  one  unhabittiated  to 
the  business  could  have  counted  them  only : 
and  as  he  quickly  turned  them  over  between 
finger  and  thumb,  he  threw  out  one,  merely 
observing : — 

"  That's  made  by  the  wrong  man." 

The  owner  of  the  forged  note  took  it  up 
without  one  word  of  remark. 

The  banker  was  very  busy  then  :  and  asked 
me  if  I  could  not  call  again  after  four  o'clock. 
"The  bank  would  be  shut ;  but  the  door  would 
be  on  the  latch  and  they  would  be  in  attend- 
ance for  less  public  business." 

This  I  must  record  as  one  of  the  worst  fea- 
tures in  American  domestic  life, — every  man 
\  is  in  business,  and  the  business  is  never  over. 
Nominally,  the  office  may  be  shut ;  but,  in 
reality,  the  merchant,  or  the  lawyer,  or  the 
commission  agent,  is  bound  to  be  at  the  beck 
and  call  of  whoever  may  want  him.  From  the 
early  morning  until  late  at  night,  he  is  only 
.    permitted  to  snatch  a  quarter  of  an  hour  or 


206  THE  WABASH. 

twenty  minutes,  during  which  he  may  rush 
away  to  swallow  his  food :  that  feat  accom- 
plished, as  Americans  only  can  accomplish  it, 
he  must  hurry  back  to  his  office  to  await  the 
pleasure  of  some  one  who  might  just  as  well 
have  called  at  an  earlier  hour.  Under  such  a 
system,  no  domestic  feeling,  no  domestic  esta- 
blishment is  possible.  The  man  of  business 
can  have  no  mornings  and  no  evenings  with 
his  family.  I  know  some  in  these  western 
States  who  have  attempted  to  adopt  the  Euro- 
pean plan ;  who  have  given  notice  that  their 
offices  would  be  really  closed  at  four  or  five 
o'clock :  they  Avere  considered  to  be  presump- 
tuous and  impertinent, — as  setting  themselves 
above  their  clients,  and  dictating  at  what  hour 
they  would  earn  their  money.  And  others, 
in  the  same  line  of  business,  lacking  the 
honour  said  to  exist  among  thieves,  the  esprit 
cle  corps,  or  the  spirit  of  combination  which 
actuates  Europeans,  improved  the  discontent, 
and  ran  off  with  the  business  from  their  more 
refined  and  gentlemanly  brethren. 

I  called  again  after  four  at  the  Cincinnati 
Bank ;  and,  sure  enough,  partners  and  clerks 


CHAP.   VII. CINCINNATI.  207 

were  all  at  work;  though  the  room  was  no 
longer  crowded  as  in  the  morning.  I  showed 
Mr.  Beebee's  receipt,  and  they  bought  it  of  me 
at  a  premium  of  seven-eights.  I  asked  how 
forged  notes  were  to  be  known  from  others  ; 
and  was  assured  that  practice  only  would  en- 
able me  to  detect  them.  I  was  shown  several 
forgeries,  which  I  could  not  distinguish  to  be 
such  even  when  placed  beside  those  that  were 
"  made  by  the  right  man":  but  the  banker 
pointed  out  some  slight  flaws  that  were  suffi- 
cient for  his  practised  eye.  The  signature  of 
the  issuer  might  seem  perfect,  but  there  was 
something  different  in  the  flourish  of  a  letter, 
in  the  copper  plate,  or  in  the  engraving  of  a 
hand  of  one  of  the  figures.  The  paper  money 
of  the  United  States  is  very  beautiful.  It  is 
for  any  sums  from  one  dollar  upwards — con- 
vertible into  gold  on  demand  at  the  bank  that 
issues  it :  hence  it  maintains  its  nominal  value. 
I  have  now  before  me  a  note  of  New  York  of 
the  Manhattan  Company :  in  the  centre,  is 
the  figure  of  a  wrater  god — I  presume  Father 
Hudson,  seated  on  one  side  of  a  river :  a 
moody  red   Indian  sits,    sadly,    facing   him : 


208  THE  WABASH. 

above,  a  European  face  uplifts  a  curtain  and 
shows  the  river,  covered  with  shipping  moored 
to  the  quays  of  a  large  town  in  the  distance. 
At  one  end  of  the  note,  is  the  portrait  of  an 
Indian  chief  in  a  headdress  of  cock's  feathers 
and  a  necklace  of  shells  :  at  the  other,  Justice 
with  her  scales,  and  Plenty  with  her  horn  are 
on  each  side  of  the  American  eagle.  What 
could  be  more  emblematic  of  the  past  and  the 
present  \ 

I  have  before  me  a  New  Hampshire  note, 
which  shows,  in  the  centre,  a  beautifully- 
engraved  representation  of  a  railway  train 
passing  beside  neat  cottages  and  ploughed 
fields.  On  one  side,  the  head  of  Palinurus ; 
on  the  other,  a  Plenty  with  cornucopia,  plough, 
and  wheatsheaf: — a  well-engraved  Durham 
ox  is  at  the  bottom.  Here,  again,  is  evidence 
of  the  tastes  and  aims  of  the  community. 

I  have  before  me  a  note  of  a  Maryland 
Bank.  Here  also  is  a  remarkably  well-exe- 
cuted centre  engraving,  showing  a  group  of 
Indians — mother  and  child  at  rest  on  one 
side ;  European  children  studying  school- 
books    and   the   globes    on   the   other:    both 


CHAP.  VII. CINCINNATI.  209 

groups  overshadowed  by  the  broad  shield, 
charged  with  the  stripes  and  stars.  At  one 
end,  is  Justice  standing  beside  shipping  and 
merchandize,  and  holding  sword,  olive  branch 
and  scales  ;  on  the  other,  is  a  noble  figure 
representing  Architecture  and  her  tools,  with 
a  porticoed  building  in  the  background :  at 
the  bottom,  is  a  steam  engine  in  full  work. 
Here,  too,  we  have  emblems  of  the  idle  past 
and  of  the  busy  present. 

Let  me  add  that  the  ornamental  scrollwork 
about  all  these  notes  is  very  beautiful. 

I  have  before  me  a  note  of  the  midland  dis- 
trict of  Canada,  "  chartered  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment." In  the  centre,  is  the  ill-drawn  figure 
of  a  great  awkward  Indian  woman  stepping 
from  out  her  canoe  amid  swamps  and  forests. 
At  one  end,  is  a  simpering  face  of  Prince  Al- 
bert in  stars  and  uniform ;  at  the  other,  the 
portrait  of  Her  Gracious  Majesty  with  crown 
on  head — both  being  very  bad  likenesses  very 
badly  engraved ;  underneath,  are  the  arms  of 
England  with  lion  and  unicorn.  These  are 
emblems  of  the  past,  unchanged  except  by  the 
dominion  of  England.     No  evidence  of  com- 


210  THE  WABASH. 

merce,  of  agriculture,  of  arts,  of  science  :  North 
America,  such  as  she  was ;  but  with  England 
watching  over  her.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  a 
true  representation  of  the  state  of  the  country  ; 
I  know  that  it  is  not  so.  But  why  is  such  an 
one  given  1  Why  cannot  we,  as  well  as  the 
United  States,  avail  ourselves  of  the  means 
which  the  circulation  of  a  "  five  shilling"  note 
gives  us  to  impart  a  lesson  of  hope,  of  energy, 
of  improvement'?  Cannot  we  find  as  good 
artists  to  engrave  our  emblems  \  Cannot  we, 
like  them,  tell  our  people  to  be  industrious,  to 
look  to  the  future  as  well  as  to  the  past  1 

Comparing  these  different  notes,  it  would 
really  appear  as  if  the  order  to  design  and  en- 
grave those  for  Canada  had  been  given  to  some 
envious  Yankee,  who  had  availed  himself  of 
the  opportunity  to  circulate  a  satire  and  a  libel 
upon  our  territory. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE   PLEDGE. 


Father  Mathew.  —  Another  pledge.  —  The  cathedral.  —  Mrs. 
Trollope.  —  Incendiarism. —  Jesuits.  —  Cardinals. — American 
Catholics. —  Irish  emigrants.  —  The  Maine  liquor  law. — 
Forward  ! 

The  celebrated  and  rev.  Father  Mathew,  the 
Irish  Apostle  of  Temperance,  was  in  Cin- 
cinnati when  I  arrived  there;  and  the  walls 
were  placarded  with  handbills  announcing  that 
he  would  preach  and  deliver  the  Pledge  at  the 
cathedral  on  the  following  Sunday.  He  was 
a  guest  at  the  archbishop's  residence ;  and  I 
had  been  introduced  to  him  on  my  first  visit. 
One  day  I  called  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Purcell  and, 
not  finding  him  at  home,  was  shown  into  a 
parlour,  to  await  his  return :  there  I  found 
Father  Mathew  sitting  near  the  window,  and 
his  secretary  at  a  desk  on  the  other  side  of  the 
room.  He  was  a  middle-sized  man,  of  appa- 
rently about  fifty-five  years  of  age,  with  black 
hair  sprinkled  with  grey,  and  a  ruddy  counte- 


212  THE  WABASH. 

nam?e.  His  manner  was  remarkably  cold ; 
courteous,  but  without  polish.  His  enuncia- 
tion very  measured  and  slow.  He  was  still 
suffering  from  the  remains  of  a  paralytic 
seizure  that  had  affected  him  in  one  of  the 
Southern  States.  This  might  have  hindered, 
in  some  degree,  his  enunciation  ;  but  could  not 
have  produced  that  remarkable  coldness  of 
manner,  so  devoid  of  all  the  enthusiasm  which 
one  had  expected  to  find  in  him.  Yet  it  was 
thoroughly  earnest.  While  we  sat  there,  se- 
veral persons  came  in  to  take  the  pledge :  he 
spoke  to  them  all  kindly,  gravely,  but  with 
chilling  earnestness,  if  the  expression  can  be 
allowed. 

"  Intoxicating    drink   is   at   the  bottom   of 
almost  every  sin  and  evil." 

"  Youth  is  the  season  of  good  resolutions." 
These  and  similar  phrases,  he  repeated  to 
all,  intermingled  with  a  few  words  of  inquiry. 
Most  of  those  who  came  in,  were  Americans ; 
most  of  them,  Protestants.  One  party  of  three 
or  four  American  Protestant  young  men,  who 
seemed  to  be  of  a  superior  class,  called  in  amongst 
others.    All  took  the  pledge,  and  the  secretary 


CHAP.   VIII. THE  PLEDGE.  213 

inscribed  the  names  of  all  in  his  books.  Some 
begged  to  have  medals ;  and,  to  these,  the  se- 
cretary handed  them  at  cost  price.  Father 
Mathew  was  said  to  have  spent  his  all  in  me- 
dals and  papers  which  he  distributed  gratis  as 
long  as  he  had  the  means  of  procuring  them : 
he  was  now  obliged  to  make  his  pledged  ones 
pay  for  them;  but  they  were  not  offered  to 
any  who  did  not  ask  for  them. 

I  and  my  wife  had  to  sit  here  long,  waiting 
for  Mr.  Purcell ;  and  we  kept  up  a  desultory 
conversation  broken  by  these  applicants  to  the 
reverend  gentleman.  He  said  that  he  had  en- 
rolled nearly  three  millions  of  teatotallers  since 
he  had  been  in  the  United  States,  and  hoped 
to  complete  that  number  before  he  returned 
to  Europe.  His  secretary  talked  more  than 
he  did ;  and  seemed  rather  to  make  light  of 
his  patron's  earnestness. 

"  Father  Mathew,"  I  exclaimed  at  length, 
"  you  and  we  shall  all  lose  our  characters !" 

"  How  so,  sir  %"  he  solemnly  inquired. 

"  Every  one  Mill  know  that  we  have  been 
sitting  with  you  for  an  hour  ;  and  they  will  say- 
that  your  reverence  needed  all  that  time  before 


214  THE  WABASH. 

we  could  persuade  my  wife  to  take  the  tem- 
perance pledge." 

Not  a  muscle  of  his  face  moved  as  she  laugh- 
ingly added,  "  How  should  I  get  back  to  Eu- 
rope, if  I  did  1  Brandy  and  water  was  the  only 
thing  that  checked  sea  sickness  on  my  voyage 
out." 

"  There  is  one  pledge,  Father  Mathew,"  I 
said  in  the  hope  of  rousing  him  ;  "  there  is  one 
pledge  that  I  wish  you  could  get  American 
women  to  take." 

"What  is  that,  sir'?"  he  asked  with  some 
slight  look  of  supercilious  interest. 

"  I  wish  you  could  make  them  pledge  them- 
selves not  to  spend  more  in  dress  than  their 
fathers  or  husbands  could  afford." 

"  A  matter  of  quite  minor  importance  !"  he 
exclaimed  scornfully. 

"  Do  you  think  so  T  I  said.  "  You  cannot 
have  travelled  through  the  United  States  with- 
out noticing,  as  I  have,  the  extravagant,  ex- 
pensive dresses  of  all  the  females  : — I  do  not 
speak  of  the  free  negresses,  in  their  white  mus- 
lin dresses,  white  satin  shoes,  and  green  silk 
parasols  to   preserve  their  complexions  ; — let 


CHAP.  VIII. THE  PLEDGE.  215 

them  dress  on  Sundays  as  they  will,  for  the 
present:  but  you  must  be  aware  that  every 
American  woman,  whatever  be  her  position  in 
life,  spends  two  or  three  times  as  much  on  her 
dress  as  one  in  the  same  station  would  spend 
in  England.  Do  not  you  see  the  long  train  of 
evil  which  must  follow  from  this  rage  for  the 
vanities  of  dress  V 

"  Not  to  be  compared  to  the  evils  of  drink," 
he  insisted. 

Mr.  Purcell  came  in,  and  I  asked  him  what 
seats  we  could  have  in  the  cathedral  where  we 
might  see  and  hear  Father  Mathew. 

"  Seats  !"  he  exclaimed :  "  the  church  only 
holds  five  thousand  sittings.  There  is  not  a 
chance  of  your  finding  even  standing  room. 
But  come  through  this  house  ;  and  my  house- 
keeper will  lead  you  to  a  private  gallery." 

We  did  so  on  the  following  morning,  and 
were  excellently  well  placed.  The  mighty 
organ  pealed  :  the  congregation  seemed  most 
devotional :  the  usual  holy  service  was  per- 
formed with  decorum  and  solemnity.  When 
it  was  over,  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  left 
the  building  :  nor  did  they  return.     Not  the 


216  THE    WABASH. 

smallest  sacristan  or  chorister  boy  was  there  in 
snrplice,  to  intimate  that  what  was  to  follow 
was  part  of  the  service  of  the  church,  or  that 
the  clergy  sanctioned  it.  The  lights  were  ex- 
tinguished and  the  altar  was  left  bare.  Father 
Mathew  came  forward  before  it,  and  began  his 
discourse.  His  utterance  was  impeded,  as  I 
had  observed  before  :  he  spoke  of  the  illness 
he  had  endured  and  from  which  he  still  suf- 
fered, and  which,  he  feared,  would  prevent  him 
addressing  them.  He  told  what  he  had  done 
in  other  countries;  what  he  had  done  in  Ame- 
rica. I  cannot  say  that  his  manner  warmed : 
but  it  became  more  deeply  earnest — almost 
painfully  so.  He  compared  his  labours  to 
those  of  St.  Paul ;  and  spoke  of  himself  as  of 
an  apostle  sent,  expressly,  to  preach  temper- 
ance, on  the  value  of  which  and  on  the  evils  of 
the  contrary  vice,  he,  of  course,  enlarged.  He 
regretted  that  his  ill-health  would  not  permit 
him  to  speak  longer ;  but  he  had  caught  it 
while  labouring  in  the  cause,  and,  therefore, 
would  he  glory  in  his  infirmity. 

All  this  was  very  painful.    It  was  painful  to 
see  the  labouring  of  that  heaving  chest — al- 


CHAP.  VIII. THE    PLEDGE.  217 

most  the  throbbing  of  that  apparently-over- 
charged brain ;  and  to  hear  the  words  so  slowly 
enunciated,  yet  with  that  fearful  earnestness, 
I  expected  to  see  him  every  moment  smitten 
where  he  stood,  and  fall  in  another  fit.  But 
he  concluded  without  accident ;  inviting  those 
who  wished  to  take  the  pledge  to  come  for- 
ward to  the  rails  at  the  foot  of  the  altar. 
There  was  then  a  rush  ! — a  crowd-rush  of 
whom  three-fourths  were  females.  Women, 
hard  working  women,  half  of  whom  had  ba- 
bies in  their  arms,  knelt  down  and  repeated 
the  oath  for  themselves  and  their  babies  :  boys 
and  girls  of  all  ages  pushed  forward  and  took 
the  pledge.  Many,  very  many  men,  also  took 
it.  I  know  not  the  number ;  but  very  many 
hundreds  must  have  bound  themselves  that 
day.  I  forget  the  wording  of  the  pledge.  I 
did  not  like  it :  it  was  a  most  solemn  promise 
uttered  by  Father  Mathew  and  repeated  by 
each  one  :  then  he  signed  the  cross  over  each, 
exclaiming :  "  Carry  this  sign  of  the  cross  un- 
stained by  any  breach  of  the  pledge,  until  we 
meet  again  at  the  great  judgment  seat  of  God." 
There  has  always  been  a  difference  of  opi- 


21 S  THE    WABASH. 

nion  amongst  the  Catholic  clergy  of  all  coun- 
tries in  which  the  pledge  has  been  adminis- 
tered, as  to  the  light  in  which  it  ought  to  be 
considered.  Though  asserted  not  to  be  an 
oath,  and  that  it  might  be  broken  without  sin, 
it  was  delivered  and  impressed  upon  the  peo- 
ple in  a  manner  suited  only  to  the  most  solemn 
oath.  And  though  declared  to  be  only  a  pro- 
mise, yet  was  the  breach  of  it  declared  to  be  a 
"  reserved  case"  in  Ireland.  It  was  not  an 
oath,  but  the  people,  in  fact,  took  it  as  if  it 
were  one  :  and  children  and  babies,  men  and 
women,  even  in  a  state  of  maudlin  intoxica- 
tion and  unknowing  what  they  did,  were  per- 
mitted to  pledge  themselves  in  a  manner 
which  those  even  who  administered  the  cere- 
monial could  hardly  define  or  understand. 

"  Now,  Paddy,  my  good  friend,"  said  an 
American  Catholic  bishop  to  an  emigrant  who 
was  about  to  take  the  pledge  ;  "  will  you  un- 
derstand what  it  is  you  are  going  to  do  !  You 
are  going  to  make  a  solemn  promise  to  God, 
and  you  ought  not  to  break  your  promise :  but 
it  is  a  promise,  it  is  not  an  oath  ;  understand 
that  it  is  not  an  oath." 


CHAP.   VIII. THE    PLEDGE.  219 

"  Oh  no,  your  reverence,"  replied  Paddy  ; 
"  sure  I  understand  that  it  is  ten  million  times 
more  binding  nor  any  oath." 

After  the  ceremonial,  hundreds  rushed  to 
the  secretary  to  buy  temperance  medals. 

The  authoress  of  that  clever  caricature  en- 
titled "  The  Domestic  Manners  of  the  Ameri- 
cans," or,  as  the  Americans  said  it  ought  to 
have  been  worded, "  Manners  of  the  American 
Domestics,"  had  raised  a  fantastic  building  at 
Cincinnati,  which  still  went  by  the  name  of 
"Trollope's  Folly."  In  it,  she  was  said  to  have 
opened  a  store  of  millinery ;  but  as  her  stock 
came  from  London,  the  fashions  were  too  anti- 
quated for  ladies  who  had  theirs  direct  from 
Paris  ;  and  the  speculation  did  not  succeed. 
I  had  already  seen  enough  of  American  wo- 
men to  be  quite  aware  that  nothing  but  the 
most  rapid  communication  between  the  scene 
of  their  display  and  the  armoury  whence  they 
draw  their  charms,  could  satisfy  their  vain 
longings,  or  the  longings  of  their  vanity,  for 
dress.  The  store  is  now,  therefore,  applied  to 
other  purposes. 

I  was  waked  one  night  at  Cincinnati — or, 


220  THE  WABASH. 

as  the   inhabitants   please  to  pronounce  the 
name,Cincinnata — by  the  violent  clang  of  bells 
rung  backwards  ;  and,  going  to  the  window,  I 
saw  a  glorious  blaze  amongst  the  buildings  at 
no  great  distance.  The  lurid  flames  and  sparks 
were  flying  upwards  and  casting  a  ruddy  glow 
on  the  steeples  and  hills  around.     Knowing 
that  the  throng  of  people  to  a  fire  is  always  a 
great  hindrance  to  the  efforts  of  the  firemen, 
I  watched  the  flames  from  my  window  for  some 
little  time,  and  then  philosophically  returned 
to  bed  again.     I  drove  past  the  scene  of  the 
disaster  on   the  following  day,  and  saw  the 
blackened  remains  of  a  large  hog- slaughter- 
house and  packing  establishment.     I  was  told 
that  the  fire  was  probably  the  work  of  the 
proprietor,  who,  wishing  to  enlarge  his  esta- 
blishment, had  burnt  down  the  old  one  after 
insuring  it.     All  buildings  are  erected  here, 
not  only  according  to  the  means  of  the  person 
for  whom  they  are  built,  but  on  a  calculation 
of  the  time  in  which,  according  to  the  average 
of  cases,  he  will  have  made  his  fortune,  and 
will  want  to  enlarge  his  premises.     That  time 
arrived,  in  the -course  of  five,  ten,  or  fifteen 


CHAP.  Till. THE    FLEDGE.  221 

years,  he  ensures  and  burns  down  his  more 
modest  store,  and  runs  up  another  large  enough 
to  hold  him  for  a  few  years  more,  when  that 
also  follows  its  predecessors,  and  makes  way 
for  something  better. 

The  fillet  inside  the  loins  of  pork  does  not 
salt  or  pack  profitably.  I  know  not  why.  The 
most  choice  and  delicate  fillets  are,  therefore, 
to  be  bought  here  fresh,  at  one  cent,  or  one 
halfpenny,  a  pound. 

A  propos  to  eating :  I  was  surprised  to  hear 
that  the  governing  authorities  of  Cincinnati 
forbid  the  sale  of  fish  during  certain  seasons, 
the  food  being  then  thought  to  be  injurious  to 
the  public  health.  Most  of  the  fish  from  the 
great  lakes  is  said  to  be  very  debilitating.  I 
saw  sometimes  offered  for  sale,  in  the  market, 
some  most  extraordinary-looking  animals  out 
of  the  Ohio  river.  They  were  not  like  any  fish 
that  I  had  ever  seen  in  Europe :  certainly, 
according  to  an  American  saying,  when  the 
Almighty  created  turbot,  soles,  salmon,  and 
others  of  that  description,  the  devil  must  have 
let  these  Ohio  monsters  slip  through  his  fingers. 

The  Jesuits  have  a  large  establishment  at 


222  THE  WABASH. 

Cincinnati.  St.  Xavier's  College  is  under  their 
direction,  and  gives  education  in  the  classics, 
modern  languages,  chemistry,  and  natural  his- 
tory, to  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  students, 
including  boarders  and  day-scholars.  I  heard 
a  very  good  account  of  the  establishment, 
though  I  had  afterwards  reason  to  believe  that 
the  influx  of  day-scholars  of  every  religion  and 
class  in  the  town,  and  whose  numbers  equal 
those  of  the  regular  boarders,  acts  prejudicially 
upon  the  Catholic  youth,  who  would  wish  to 
pursue  their  education  more  steadily  and 
quietly.  But  in  this  country,  the  education  of 
all  the  first  classes  of  Protestants  seems  to  be 
entrusted  to  the  Catholic  priests  and  nuns.  The 
lads  are  sent  to  Jesuit  and  other  colleges  :  the 
girls  to  convents.  The  parents  say  that  their 
children  are  better  taught  and  better  looked 
after  than  they  would  be  in  any  other  schools : 
the  teachers  say  that  they  do  not  interfere  with 
the  religious  opinions  of  the  non-Catholic 
pupils  ;  and  that,  without  such  indiscriminate 
admission  of  all,  they  would  not  be  able  to  sup- 
port their  establishments.  Three-fourths  of 
the  boarders  in  many  convents  are  Protestants. 


CHAP.   VIII. THE    PLEDGE.  223 

The  Protestant  parents  who  gave  me  these 
accounts  of  the  mode  in  which  their  children 
were  being  educated,  generally  interrupted  the 
conversation  to  laugh  at  the  English  parlia- 
ment, which  was  then  expending  a  whole  ses-> 
sion  in  passing  what  it  called  the  "Ecclesias- 
tical Titles'  Bill" — as  if,  said  the  Americans,  it 
could  matter  to  the  state  by  what  unrecognised 
names  any  number  of  citizens  pleased  to  call 
themselves  !  The  creation  of  a  Cardinal  Arch- 
bishop, they  said,  was  a  compliment  to  Eng- 
land, as  they  themselves  were  well  pleased  that 
Bishop  Purcell  had  just  been  made  archbishop 
of  Cincinnati ;  and  they  were  inclined  to  join 
with  American  Catholics  in  considering  that 
Pome  slighted  their  country  by  not  giving 
them  an  American  cardinal.  Thus,  while  the 
Prime  Minister  and  the  legislature  of  England 
were  lashing  themselves  into  a  fury  about 
clerical  puerilities,  the  civilized  and  half-civi- 
lized world  stood  by  laughing  ! 

But  this  good  feeling  is  maintained,  not  only 
by  the  absence  of  all  political  supremacy,  but 
also  by  the  prudence  of  the  different  religionists. 
Thus  at  a  convocation  or  council  of  the  Catholic 


224  THE  WABASH. 

hierarchy,  at  St.  Louis,  it  had  recently  been 
proposed,  by  the  French  bishops  there,  to 
enforce  upon  all  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the 
United  States,  the  wearing  of  the  straight 
Roman  collar,  and  of  a  distinctive  clerical 
habit,  instead  of  the  common  black  dress 
which  they  now  wear ;  after  much  discussion, 
some  of  the  American-born  bishops  had  said, 
"  Decide  what  you  please ;  but  we  know  the 
feelings  of  our  countrymen ;  and  we  will  not 
mark  out  our  clergy  and  make  them  objects  of 
distrust  by  giving  them  a  dress  different  from 
the  usual  clerical  dress  of  the  country, — a 
distinction  which  we  know  would  be  con- 
sidered an  assumption,  and  excite  jealousy  or 
dislike  ;  whatever,  therefore,  you  decree,  we 
shall  enjoin  upon  our  own  clergy  to  continue 
to  dress  themselves  as  much  like  gentlemen  as 
possible  ;  though  always  in  black."  In  con- 
sequence of  such  determined  remonstrance, 
no  decree  was  made. 

Had  such  prudent  counsels  prevailed  in 
England,  no  act  would  have  been  thought  of 
to  forbid  people  from  dressing  in  the  habit  of 
their  order ;  or,  in  other  words,  from  wearing 


CHAP.  Till. —  THE    PLEDGE.  225 

their  own  clothes  ;  for  nothing  in  the  act  now 
prevents  the  Passionist,  Father  Spencer,  from 
wearing  the  habit  of  the  Carthusian  Abbot 
Bui-don !  Well  may  the  world  laugh  at  the 
puerilities  of  English  ecclesiastical  legislation  ! 

Not  being  able  to  hire  any  residence  in  the 
town  of  Cincinnati,  I  enquired  about  the 
many  mineral  springs  in  the  neighbourhood, 
which  are,  more  or  less,  places  of  fashionable 
resort ;  but  as  places  of  fashionable  resort 
they  seemed  alone  to  be  considered ;  for  the 
first  medical  practitioner  in  the  town  could 
give  me  little  information  as  to  the  quality  of 
their  waters ;  and,  to  my  enquiry  whether 
any  of  them  contained  iron,  he  said  he 
"  guessed  not ;  but  if  not,  it  was  easy  to  add 
it. 

Private  letters  and  the  public  papers,  how- 
ever, now  informed  me  that  the  cholera  was 
dying  away  at  St.  Louis,  while  it  seemed  to 
be  increasing  at  Cincinnati ;  and  we  prepared 
to  push  onwards  on  our  journey.  Again,  we 
attempted  to  hire  servants,  used  to  the  country; 
and  a  nice  tidy  Irish  girl  was  recommended  to 
us.    Her  mother  and  she  had  lately  emigrated, 


226  THE  WABASH. 

and  had  spent  most  of  their  little  money  in 
bringing  so  far  the  feather  beds  they  had 
prized  in  Ireland,  while  the  friends  they  had 
expected  to  meet  had  died  in  Cincinnati  before 
their  arrival.  My  wife  was  much  pleased  with 
their  manners,  and  gladly  hired  the  girl ;  but 
here  again  the  engagement  came  to  nought. 
On  the  day  on  which  we  were  to  start,  the 
mother  could  not  bring  herself  to  part  with 
her  daughter,  and  the  daughter  could  not  go 
with  us  against  the  mother's  wishes.  At  Cin- 
cinnati, therefore,  they  remained  ;  adding  to 
the  number  of  the  Irish  emigrants  who  almost 
starve  one  another  on  its  wharves.  I  tried  to 
persuade  some  of  the  porters  and  carmen 
how  much  better  they  would  prosper  farther 
up  the  country ;  but  sure  there  was  Mary  and 
the  children  were  hard  to  move ;  and  sure 
they  had  spent  all  their  money ;  and  when 
they  did  earn  a  dollar,  the  whiskey  was  very 
comforting,  and  three  cents  would  roll  a  man 
in  the  gutter,  and  make  him  good  for  nothing 
at  all,  at  all. 

Well   might   Father  Mathew  preach  tem- 
perance   to   such   people.     The  more  settled 


CHAP.   VIII. THE    PLEDGE.  227 

population  of  the  country,  however,  needed 
him  not ;  for  before  his  arrival,  the  walls  had 
been  covered  with  handbills  in  favour  of  what 
was  called  the  Maine  Liquor  Law,  which  for- 
bids the  selling,  by  retail,  of  all  spirituous 
and  fermented  liquor.  The  votes  were  shortly 
afterwards  taken  on  the  question  by  universal 
suffrage ;  and  by  an  immense  majority  of 
votes,  the  whole  people  of  the  state  of  Ohio 
(a  territory  more  than  half  as  large  as  all 
France),  imposed  upon  themselves  this  vexa- 
tious, tyrannous,  absurd  sumptuary  law  ! 

We  paid  our  bill,  one  dollar  a-head  per 
day  for  board,  lodging,  and  service ;  found 
one  Irish  hackney  coach  driver,  who  consented 
to  convey  our  children  half  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  to  the  quay  for  half  a  dollar ;  three 
others  having  turned  away  in  disgust  at  my 
meanness  in  having  offered  only  a  little  more 
than  double  the  London  fare.  We  crossed 
the  busy  quay,  and  embarked  ourselves  and 
our  goods  on  "  the  river  of  beautiful  waters,"' 
the  bright  Ohio. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


THE    OHIO. 

Rivers  of  England  and  of  America. — Kentucky  or  Ohio ;  free- 
dom or  slavery. — Plan  for  emancipation  of  slaves. — La  Belle 
Riviere. — Vineyards. — Cholera. — Maddison. — The  Mammoth 
Cave. — Aspect  of  Indiana. 

At  this  time,  a  story  was  going  the  round  of 
the  American  papers,  recounting  that  a  Bri- 
tisher, who,  in  a  railway  carriage  in  Europe, 
was  dilating  to  an  American  on  the  greatness 
of  England,  exclaimed,  "  Yes,  sir,  the  Thames 
is  a  magnificent  river :  it  is  one  of  the  finest 
rivers  in  the  world.  It  is  navigable  for  nearly 
one  hundred  miles !" 

"  In  my  country,"  responded  the  American, 
"  there  is  a  river,  called  the  Ohio,  which  is 
navigable  for  one  thousand  miles,  until  it  joins 
two  other  rivers,  one  of  which  has  been  navi- 
gable for  one  thousand,  and  the  other  for 
eighteen  hundred,  miles ;  and  from  whence  all 
three  now  together  for  more  than  one  thousand 


CHAP.  IX. THE    OHIO.  229 

miles  more  to  the  sea.  The  Britisher,"  con- 
tinues the  American  who  told  the  story,  "  did 
not  say  anything ;  but  he  looked  at  me  with 
an  air  of  offended  dignity,  to  make  me  under- 
stand that  I  ought  not  to  have  insulted  such 
an  one  as  him  by  trying  to  impose  fables  upon 
him  ;  and  he  then  majestically  went  from  my 
side  to  the  furthest  seat  in  the  carriage." 

We  were  now  embarked  upon  the  first  of 
these  three  rivers,  which,  formed  at  Pittsburgh 
by  the  junction  of  two  others,  that  had  been 
severally  navigable  to  keel  boats  for  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  had  thence  been  called 
the  Ohio,  and  had  already  carried  down  our 
steamboat  five  hundred  miles  to  us  at  Cincin- 
nati. I  remember,  some  years  ago,  reading  an 
account  of  the  seizure  of  a  vessel  in  some 
European  port,  as  with  forged  papers,  for  pre- 
tending that  she  came  from  a  place  called  Pitts- 
burgh :  and  it  was  with  difficulty  the  people 
who  had  seized  her  could  be  persuaded  that  a 
little  village  had  arisen  three  thousand  miles 
from  any  sea,  where  this  vessel  had  been  built, 
and  whence  it  had  sailed  across  the  Atlantic. 

However,  the  Ohio  had  now  left  the  busy 


230  THE  WABASH. 

town  of  Pittsburgh  five  hundred  miles  behind  ; 
and  here  it  was  at  Cincinnati,  and  here  we 
were  upon  it. 

From  what  is  called  the  Levee  or  floating 
wharf,  which  rises  and  falls  with  the  river,  we 
had  easily  stepped,  from  the  paved  shore  or 
bank  at  Cincinnati,  on  board  the  St.  Louis 
mail -packet,  on  which  we  now  settled  our- 
selves. We  passed  the  four  steam  -  ferries 
which  constantly  unite  the  city  with  its  sub- 
urbs on  the  opposite  side ;  we  passed  the  city 
itself;  and  soon  lost  sight  even  of  its  beau- 
tifully-situated observatory  :  we  swept  round 
from  amongst  the  crowd  of  steamers  and  flat 
boats  that  surrounded  us,  and  soon  found  our- 
selves in  comparative  solitude  on  the  smooth 
bosom  of  this  lovely  river.  On  both  sides,  the 
scenery  was  broken,  diversified,  and  beautiful. 
Sometimes  that  of  Kentucky  was  the  most 
picturesque  ;  sometimes  that  of  Ohio  State 
most  delighted  us.  And  as  some  of  my  family 
already  revolted  against  the  free  and  levelling 
manners  of  the  Free  States,  and  wished  that 
their  location  should  be  in  a  slave  state,  where 
they  would  meet  with  more  of  the  deference  to 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  231 

which  they  had  been  accustomed,  a  friendly 
contest  was  kept  up  amongst  us  as  the  scenery 
on  the  Ohio  or  the  Kentucky  shore  was,  in 
turn,  the  most  beautiful. 

"Look  there  !"  one  of  them  would  cry,  "look 
at  those  beautiful  woods,  look  at  that  beauti- 
ful secluded  glen  on  the  left !  What  a  sweet, 
quiet,  gentlemanly  location,  as  they  call  it,  one 
might  have  there !" 

"  In  the  backwoods,  indeed  !"  one,  of  the 
opposite  faction  amongst  us,  would  exclaim. 
'•Why, nothing  living  is  in  sight  there!  Look 
at  the  pretty  cultivated  country  in  free  Ohio. 
Look  at  the  churches  and  farmhouses,  and . . . 
yes,  look  at  the  vines  on  those  terraces  sloping 
down  to  the  river.  See  how  far  a-head  the 
free  state  is  of  the  slave  state  !" 

Thus,  in  friendly  contest,  the  hours  and  the 
miles  past  by  us ;  the  broad  stream  winding 
slowly,  now  to  the  right  and  now  to  the  left, 
amid  those  beautiful  forests  or  cultivated 
bluffs.  And  whatever  might  be  the  cause  of 
the  difference,  the  youngest  child  in  my  party 
could  not  but  contrast  the  busy  cultivation, 
mills  and  factories  on  the  one  side,  with  the 


232  THE    WABASH. 

beautiful  but  silent  forest  on  the  Kentucky 
shore  of  the  river.  And  whereas  I  had  already 
found  out  that  land  on  the  Ohio  side  could  not 
be  purchased  for  less  than  from  one  to  two 
hundred  dollars  an  acre,  I  had  been  offered, 
and  was  now  again  offered  thousands  of  acres 
on  the  Kentucky  shore  at  twenty-five  cents  or 
one  shilling  an  acre.  I  may  be  told  that  infe- 
riority and  barrenness  of  the  soil  occasioned 
the  difference  :  no  soil  could  be  worse  than  that 
of  the  busiest  scenes  through  which  we  had 
passed  on  the  railway  from  Albany :  and  here, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  on  the  shores  of 
a  water  carriage  of  five  thousand  miles,  one 
would  suppose  any  location  to  be  valuable. 

I  would  not  enter  into  the  question  of  do- 
mestic slavery  in  the  United  States.  Let  the 
free  soilers,  let  the  free  states  and  the  slave 
states  discuss  the  matter  amongst  themselves 
according  to  their  own  prudence.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  a  great  deal  of  harm  has  been 
done  and  is  still  being  done  to  the  cause  of 
freedom  by  the  officious  intrusion  of  foreigners 
into  the  question.  Least  of  all  should  the 
English,  whose  ancestors  introduced  the  curse 


CHAP.  IX.- — THE    OHIO.  233 

into  these  countries,  whose  laws  upheld  and 
defended  it,  least  of  all  should  they  pharisai- 
cally reproach  the  North  Americans  with  the 
institution.  Let  us  not  be  told  that  the  Eng- 
lish grew  ashamed  of  the  iniquity  and  abo- 
lished it  in  their  own  colonies.  How  many 
years  ago  did  they  do  so  1  Is  the  power  so  to 
boast  fifteen  or  twenty  years  old  %  And  how 
did  they  abolish  it  %  Did  their  love  of  justice 
prompt  them  to  come  forward  frankly  and  at 
once,  saying :  "  We  will  ransom  these  captives 
from  their  masters:"  or  were  not  Lord  Stanley 
and  the  ministry  obliged  to  draw  them  on 
gradually,  by  first  asking  for  a  loan  of  twenty 
millions,  which,  when  the  philanthropic  mind 
wras  prepared  for  some  sacrifice,  they  converted 
into  a  gift  of  twenty  millions  to  the  West  Indian 
planters  \  Would  they  have  taxed  themselves 
to  the  amount  of  twenty  millions,  if  it  had  first 
been  proposed  X     I  doubt  it. 

But,  the  deed  is  done  :  we  have  bought  up 
these  captives :  some  twenty  or  fifteen  years 
ago,  we  did  tax  ourselves  and  our  descendants 
to  perform  a  great  act  of  justice  to  the  slaves 
— perhaps  of  injustice  to  their  owners.     But 


234  THE  WABASH. 

are  the  circumstances  of  England  and  of  the 
West  Indies  at  all  similar  to  those  of  one  of 
the  slave  states  of  America  I  I  say  of  one  of 
the  slave  states :  for  understand,  if  you  can, 
that  each  state  is  independent  in  its  legisla- 
ture, and  can  no  more  coerce  another  state 
than  you  can  coerce  France.  England,  wealthy 
England,  in  its  united  empire,  could  buy  off 
the  slaves  of  a  distant  colony :  and,  therefore, 
it  argues  that  Kentucky,  with  its  population 
of  only  seven  hundred  thousand  free  whites, 
can  ransom  its  two  hundred  thousand  domes- 
tic slaves.  How  many  ounces  of  slave  pro- 
perty did  each  British  subject  pay  for  ?  How 
many  ounces  of  slave  flesh  did  we  pay  for  per 
head  I  Was  it  a  cognizable  fraction  of  an 
ounce  1  And  yet  we  insult  poor  Kentucky 
because  each  one  of  its  free  citizens  is  not  pre- 
pared to  ransom  one  quarter  of  a  slave  for  his 
own  share  !  Our  British  enthusiasts  are  fond 
of  quoting  Shylock  and  talking  about  "  the 
pound  of  flesh":  let  them  here  work  out  the 
calculation  they  are  so  fond  of. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.      I  am  no 
apologist  for  slavery.  I  loathe  the  system.  My 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  235 

soul  recoils  from  and  denounces  it  in  every,  the 
most  mitigated  shape.  I  would  only  withhold 
our  own  well-meaning  but  ignorant  friends  of 
the  negro,  from  rushing  blindly  into  the  diffi- 
culties, and  embittering  the  feelings  of  those 
whose  position  they  do  not  understand.  None 
know  the  evils  of  slavery  better  than  the  owners 
of  slaves  ;  better  than  the  owners  of  land  in 
the  slave  states  of  America.  None  know  better 
than  they  that  slave  labour  is  dearer  than  free 
labour  would  be  if  they  could  obtain  it :  none 
know  better  than  they  that  slavery  prevents 
the  tide  of  free  labour  from  setting  towards 
them : — that,  where  all  labourers  are  slaves,  the 
poorest  Irishman  will  not  go  where  he  would 
sink  to  a  par  with  slaves :  none  know  better 
than  the  owners  of  land  in  these  States,  that 
emigrants  from  Europe  avoid  them,  and  that, 
consequently,  their  property  has  no  value  com- 
pared to  that  of  which  European  competition 
enhances  the  price.  None  know  better  than 
they  that  the  evil  must  go  on  increasing ;  and 
that  the  slave  states,  that  border  upon  the  free 
states,  must  be  daily  impoverished  by  the  supe- 
rior attractions  of  the  latter;  and  that  no  "  com- 


236  THE  WABASH. 

promise",  however  rigidly  enforced,  will  avert 
the  comparative  bankruptcy  that  ultimately 
awaits  them.  They  know  that  slavery  is  the 
curse  of  their  country  ;  but  they  know  that 
they  received  the  legacy  from  England,  and 
they  despair  of  ever  getting  rid  of  it. 

Every  census  tells  them  that  while  the  free 
population  of  Pennsylvania,  which  contains 
forty-four  millions  of  square  miles,  has  quad- 
rupled itself  during  the  present  century,  and 
that  while  that  of  New  York  which  contains 
forty-six  millions  of  square  miles  has  increased 
more  than  five-fold,  the  free  population  of 
the  neighbouring  slave  states  of  Virginia  and 
of  North  Carolina,  each  of  which  also  contains 
forty-four  millions  of  square  miles,  has  not 
even  doubled  itself;  that  the  united  population 
of  these  two  first  mentioned  states  in  1850 
was  more  than  five  millions  three  hundred 
thousand ;  and  that  that  of  the  other  two 
states,  containing,  be  it  remembered,  nearly 
the  same  average,  scarcely  amounted  to  one 
million  three  hundred  thousand.  Is  it  to  be 
supposed  that  slave  owners  and  landed  pro- 
prietors in  slave  states  do  not  meditate  upon 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  237 

such  facts  as  these  %  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
they  do  not  remember  that,  while  the  free 
population  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  has 
thus  wonderfully  increased,  that  of  the  slaves 
in  these  states  has  been  allowed  to  die  off,  and 
has  been  quite  extinguished  \ — and  that  while 
the  free  population  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  has  been,  comparatively  speaking, 
stationary,  the  number  of  the  slaves  in  those 
two  states  has  almost  doubled  itself,  and  is 
now  within  one-third  of  that  of  the  whites  % 
Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  land  proprietors  and 
slave  owners  are  blind  to  these  facts,  are  in- 
capable of  tracing  effects  to  their  causes  \ 
They  must  foresee  the  bankruptcy  that  awaits 
them.  They  must  be  aware  that  slavery  is  the 
curse  of  their  country;  but,  again  I  say,  they 
know  that  they  received  the  legacy  from  Eng- 
land, and  they  despair  of  ever  getting  rid  of  it. 
In  self-defence,  they  will  be  obliged  to  do 
so.  As  a  well-wisher  to  them  and  to  the 
slaves,  whom  I  would  believe  they  unwillingly 
hold  in  bondage,  may  I  be  permitted  to 
suggest  to  them  a  plan  for  effecting  the  object 
that  all  good  men  must  have  at  heart  \ 


238  THE    WABASH. 

The  evil  already  existing,  two  things  must 
be  borne  in  mind  by  practical  abolitionists 
who  would  preserve  the  slave  owners  from 
ruin,  and  the  country  from  desolation.  It  is 
useless  to  ask  the  owners  in  a  body  to  liberate 
their  slaves  without  compensation  ;  to  forego, 
without  compensation,  the  property  which, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  they  possess.  Were  they 
suddenly  to  do  so,  the  slaves  would  probably 
refuse  to  work  ;  starvation,  pillage,  and  murder 
would  ensue.  It  is  necessary  therefore  to 
find: 

Firstly,  Compensation  to  the  owner. 

Secondly,  Free  labour  to  supply  the  place  of 
the  slave  labour  that  shall  have  been  with- 
drawn. 

Let  us  assume  the  labour  of  a  male  slave 
to  be  worth  to  his  owner,  one  dollar  and  forty 
cents  a-day  ;  (double  or  halve  my  figures  as 
you  will ;  I  only  wish  to  state  a  principle)  ; 
and  that  he  works  for  fourteen  hours  out  of 
the  twenty-four ;  each  hour,  therefore,  will  be 
worth  ten  cents.  Say  that  there  are  twenty- 
eight  working  days  in  the  month ;  why  not 
declare  that  every  slave  shall  have  power  to 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  239 

ransom  the  last  working  hour  of  every  work- 
ing day  in  some  one  month  in  the  year,  on 
payment  to  his  owner  of  twenty-eight  times 
ten  cents,  or  two  dollars  and  eighty  cents  ?  If 
the  slaves  have  not  the  means,  I  am  sure  that 
I  am  not  rating  too  high  the  patriotism  and 
kind  feeling  of  their  owners,  when  I  say  that 
they  would  make  them  a  present  of  this  one 
hour  in  one  month  of  the  year  to  start  them 
on  their  way  to  emancipation.  With  what 
they  might  earn  during  this  first  one  hour, 
they  would  in  time  be  able  to  redeem  another 
last  hour  in  another  month  of  the  year ;  and 
so  on  until  the  last  hour  of  every  day  in  every 
month,  and,  by  degrees,  the  last  two  hours 
and  the  last  three  hours,  and,  last  blessed  hope 
of  all !  every  hour  of  every  month  were  thus 
gradually  redeemed  ! 

Suppose  the  plan  to  be  carried  out,  what 
habits  of  industry  would  be  engendered  in  the 
slaves  !  What  hopes  would  excite  the  toil  of 
those  who  wished  for  freedom !  Many  there 
are  who  wish  for  it  not,  and  these  might  re- 
main as  they  are,  if  they  strove  not  to  redeem 
their   seivitude.      Meanwhile,   the  proprietor 


240  THE    WABASH. 

would  be  receiving  the  full  value  for  his  slave, 
and  would  have  time  to  make  his  arrange- 
ments to  supply  the  place  of  the  emancipated 
ones  as  they  individually  acquired  their  free- 
dom in  the  order  of  their  industry. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  scheme  may  be 
laughed  at:  that  I  may  be  told  that  I  am 
proposing  to  pay  the  slave  owner  about  eighty 
dollars  for  a  month's  freedom,  or  nine  hundred 
dollars  for  the  whole  freedom  of  a  slave.  As 
I  have  said,  I  care  not  for  the  figures ;  alter 
them  as  you  will:  I  merely  suggest  a  prin- 
ciple to  the  "  men  of  good  will"  among  the 
slave  owners.  Tf  they  have  this  good  will 
which  I  impute  to  them,  they  will  easily  de- 
vise public  offices  in  which  the  value  of  each 
slave  may  be  recorded ;  in  which  each  slave 
may  register  the  hours  that  shall  have  been 
redeemed ;  in  which  each  slave  may  bequeath 
the  hours  he  shall  have  so  redeemed  to  any 
other  slave  ;  so  that,  in  case  of  death  while 
working  out  his  freedom,  the  toil  may  not  be 
lost  to  his  family  or  race.  All  these  are  de- 
tails which  those  who  are  willing  may  easily 
arrange.     And,   in    the   meanwhile,  were  all 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  241 

slave  owners,  in  these  transition  states,  to 
agree  to  clothe  their  slaves  in  a  particular 
uniform  which  should  mark  them  as  such, 
those  slaves  who  first  work  out  their  freedom 
would  not  have  to  prove  it  by  removing  to  a 
Free  State,  and  emigrants  would  not  be  de- 
terred from  settling  amongst  them  by  the  fear 
of  being  confounded  with  slave  labourers. 

Such,  then,  is  an  outline  of  the  plan  for 
emancipation  which  I  would  submit  to  the 
slave  owners  of  the  United  States.  I  impute 
not  to  them  the  evil  at  which  humanity 
sickens.  Still  less  do  I  presume  to  dictate. 
Apart  from  the  eternal  principles  of  justice, 
apart  from  the  everlasting  sentiment  of  right 
and  wrong  which  the  whole  human  race  feels 
to  be  insulted  by  their  institutions — it  is  their 
own  affair  and  that  of  their  slaves.  But  by 
that  everlasting  sentiment  of  right  and  wrong, 
but  by  those  eternal  principles  of  justice,  but 
by  their  wish  to  improve  the  morality  and  to 
perfect  the  civilisation  of  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  portions  of  the  globe,  I  call  upon 
them,  I  beseech  them  to  do  something. 

Our  steamer  still  moved  onwards  adown  the 


242  THE  WABASH. 

beautiful  Ohio.  About  sixteen  miles  below 
Cincinnati,  we  had  admired  the  situation  of 
the  house  in  which  the  late  General  Harrison, 
President  of  the  United  States,  had  resided, 
and  where  was  now  his  grave :  we  had  admired 
the  locality  and  floated  by  it,  little  thinking 
in  how  short  a  time  the  grandson  of  him  who 
lay  buried  there  would  be  bound  up  in  all  our 
sorrows,  would  be  a  mainstay  and  a  solace  in 
the  despair  that  was  to  overwhelm  us.  We 
chatted  thoughtlessly  of  the  history  of  the  late 
President  and  of  the  pretty  country  around 
his  last  home.  We  thought  that  we  could 
have  nothing  in  common  with  the  statesman 
buried  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  we 
floated  gaily  by. 

We  soon  passed  the  boundary  of  Ohio  State, 
and  wound  along  beside  that  Indiana  of  which 
I  have  recorded  that  I  had  so  long  thought 
with  interest,  as  the  future  home  of  some  of 
my  boys ;  the  home  which  I  had  long  wished  to 
explore  in  dreams  and  visions — though  feel- 
ing, all  the  while,  how  visionary  was  the  wish. 
And  yet,  here  I  was  with  all  my  children 
around  me :  here,  on  the  western  side  of  the 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  243 

broad  Atlantic  ;  in  the  centre  of  the  wide  con- 
tinent of  North  America :  far  beyond  what  all 
England  considers  the  utmost  boundary  of  the 
slight  civilization  of  a  half-civilized  land ! 
Here  I  was  with  my  wife  and  eleven  children, 
speeding  down  the  great  Ohio  river,  between 
the  dark  pine  forests  of  Kentucky  and  the 
oak-clearings  of  Indiana.  ...  I  felt,  indeed,  as 
a  friend  had  told  me  at  Cincinnati,  that  I  was 
either  a  hero  or  a  madman ! 

The  average  width  of  the  Ohio,  during  its 
course  of  one  thousand  and  fifteen  miles,  is 
said  to  be  about  half  a  mile.  It  did  not  look 
to  us  anything  like  so  wide,  either  because, 
from  our  recent  acquaintance  with  American 
scenery, 

"  Our  minds  had  grown  colossal", 

or  because,  the  waters  being  low,  much  of  its 
bed  was  now  laid  dry.  For  between  March 
and  September,  these  waters  generally  rise  and 
fall  a  matter  of  fifty  feet:  they  often  rise 
twelve  feet  in  a  single  night.  During  the 
winter  half  of  the  year,  first-class  steamboats 
navigate  its  whole  course :  during  the  summer, 
these    are    gradually    exchanged    for   smaller 


244  THE  WABASH. 

ones,  which  draw  the  least  possible  water: 
and  even  these  so  often  run  aground,  that  the 
passage  may  then  be  almost  said  to  be  entirely 
impeded.  At  this  time,  we  had  no  danger  of 
being  delayed  ;  though  rushes  and  flags  grew 
up  from  the  bottom  and  floated  on  a  great 
part  of  the  surface  of  the  water.  I  can  scarcely 
imagine  the  appropriateness  of  the  name,  La 
belle  Riviere,  when  it  was  first  given  to  the 
stream  by  the  French.  At  that  time,  and 
until  it  was  kept  constantly  ploughed  and  har- 
rowed and  tossed  about  by  the  paddles  of 
almost  innumerable  steamboats,  the  whole  face 
of  the  river  was  covered  with  rushes  and  weeds 
that  made  it  as  green  as  any  meadow.  In  fact, 
it  has  no  current  to  wash  these  away:  its 
waters  never  flow  faster  than  three  miles  an 
hour,  not  even  in  March,  when  they  are  highest; 
and,  in  the  summer  season,  they  do  not  ad- 
vance more  than  one  mile  in  the  hour.  Add 
to  this  that  the  descent  is  uniform  during  the 
whole  of  its  length,  being  about  five  inches  in 
the  mile  ;  that  there  are  no  rapids,  no  falls, 
except  one  small  descent  at  Louisville,  which 
disappears  when  the  waters  are  high.     Lazily, 


CHAP.  IX. THE    OHIO.  2-A5 

therefore,  the  broad  stream  pursues  its  winding- 
course  amid  beautifully-wooded  banks  and 
precipitous  cliffs,  formed  by  the  wash  of  the 
waters  through  the  alluvial  soil  of  the  mighty 
valley  that  lies  between  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains and  the  table  land  that  bounds  the  great 
lakes  on  the  northward.  They  are  hills  and 
cliffs  to  those  floating  down  the  river  ;  but 
they  are  only  beautiful  ravines  and  breaks  in 
the  table  land  of  the  valley,  to  those  who  stand 
on  the  top  of  them. 

It  was  a  pleasant  voyage  we  enjoyed  down 
the  Ohio  in  this  St.  Louis  mail  steampacket. 
We  passed  the  pretty  scenery  on  each  side  at 
the  rate  of  about  fourteen  miles  an  hour.  We 
stopped  often  for  official  or  commercial  pur- 
poses— to  deliver  letters  or  to  take  in  goods. 
No  wharves  or  quays  were  prepared  at  the  dif- 
ferent points  of  landing  ;  but  old,  worn-out 
steamboats,  from  which  the  machinery  had 
been  removed,  were  moored  to  the  banks,  and, 
rising  and  falling  with  the  increase  or  lessen- 
ing of  the  waters,  formed  excellent  floating 
piers.  We  passed  the  village  of  Vevay,  in 
Switzerland  county,  in  the  centre  of  its  pretty 


246  THE  WABASH. 

vineyards  planted  on  terraces  sloping  from  the 
summit  of  the  cliffs  to  the  edge  of  the  water. 
This  place  had  been  settled,  about  forty  years 
before,  by  some  thirty  Swiss  families  to  whom 
the  United  States  had  sold  the  land  a  bargain, 
that  they  might  introduce  the  cultivation  of 
the  vine  into  the  country.  They  did  so  ;  and 
have  since  been  joined  by  many  of  their 
countrymen  from  Europe.  Vines  are  little 
grown  in  North  America.  They  require  a 
more  continuous  care,  and,  above  all,  they  give 
a  slower  return  for  money  first  invested,  than 
suits  the  habits  of  the  people  :  but  when  cul- 
tivated in  an  exposition  that  agrees  with  them, 
the  result  is  very  satisfactory.  But  commerce 
unshackled  knows  best  how  to  employ  its 
capital.  I  have  drunk  native-grown  wine  of 
such  excellence  at  Cincinnati,  that  assuredly 
Americans  would  be  guilty  of  folly  in  sending 
for  the  Champagne  tisanne  and  light  wines  of 
France  and  of  the  Rhine,  when  they  can  pro- 
duce better  on  their  own  soil,  inasmuch  as 
their  summers  are  hotter,  did  not  commercial 
experience  tell   them   that  their   capital  and 


CHAP.  IX. THE    OHIO.  247 

energies  can  be  more  profitably  employed  than 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  vine. 

The  Kentucky  river  flows  into  the  Ohio 
nearly  opposite  Vevay.  It  seems  to  be  a  beau- 
tiful stream,  with  a  very  rapid  current,  be- 
tween high  precipitous  banks  of  rock.  It  is 
navigable  to  small  boats  for  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  ;  and  at  a  place  called 
Frankfort,  a  net- work  of  railways  to  the  in- 
terior begins. 

We  had  dined  on  board  our  steamer,  and 
were  now  approaching  the  end  of  our  pleasant 
voyage.  I  would  gladly  have  gone  down  the 
Ohio  to  a  town  called  Cairo,  where  it  flows 
into  the  Mississippi,  and  have  thence  ascended 
the  latter  stream  to  St.  Louis :  but  cholera 
still  prevailed  on  the  shore  and  in  the  boats  of 
the  Mississippi ;  and  the  ship  fever,  brought 
up  from  New  Orleans  at  this  time  of  the  year, 
was  said  to  linger  about  many  of  them.  We 
had,  therefore,  resolved  to  land  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river  and  find  our  way,  as  best  we 
might,  across  the  states  of  Indiana  and  Illinois. 
About  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  our  steamer 
drew  nigh  to  the  landing  at  Maddison,  an  im- 


2-18  THE  WABASH. 

portant  place  in  Indiana,  ninety-two  miles 
from  Cincinnati — a  distance  which  we  had 
passed  over  in  seven  hours,  at  a  cost  of  one 
and  a  half  dollar  for  each  grown-up  person, 
including  dinner. 

Our  children  and  the  diminished  number  of 
our  pets,  polly  and  the  canary  birds,  were 
quickly  transferred  to  the  disabled  steamer 
that  served  the  purpose  of  a  floating  wharf. 
Our  baggage  was  hauled  upon  it  and  covered 
its  crazy  deck.  Amongst  this,  was  a  guitar 
which  the  porter  of  the  hotel  caught  hold  of; 
and  casting  his  eyes  around  at  the  unusually 
large  party  and  at  the  baggage,  imperials  and 
carriage-boxes  of  shapes  such  as  he  had  never 
before  seen,  paused  a  moment  in  meditation 
as  to  what  we  could  be.  He  was  a  native  Ame- 
rican. Emigrants  are  fair  game  to  such ;  and, 
after  a  while,  he  exclaimed,  whether  in  jest  or 
earnest,  I  know  not, 

"  Oh,  then  you  are  the  company  that  has 
leased  the  concert  house !  When  do  you  open 
it?" 

"To-night,"  I  replied:  "and  you  shall  be 
my  first  fiddle,  in  a  cap  and  bells." 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  249 

The  people,  who  had  congregated  around, 
laughed  at  the  retort :  and  we  all  proceeded 
in  good  humour  to  the  hotel. 

Maddison  is  said  to  be  a  very  thriving  place. 
It  did  not  appear  so  to  me :  but  rather  declin- 
ing or  stationary.  And,  indeed,  referring  to  the 
census  of  the  United  States,  I  find  that  the 
population  of  its  county  is  entered  in  the  year 
1810  as  having  been  9,025,  while  in  1850  it 
was  only  10,031.  This  is  corroborative  of  my 
recollection  of  its  state  of  decay :  an  increase 
of  ten  per  cent,  in  ten  years  is  tantamount  to 
a  decrease  in  this  country.  Why  the  very 
next  county  in  alphabetical  order  in  my  little 
book,  is  thus  entered : — "  Mahoning,  1840, 
none:  1850,  23,745— increase,  23,745"!  That 
is  what  we  call  here  being  alive ! 

I  should  have  been  very  glad  to  have  made 
an  incursion  into  Kentucky  to  visit  its  Mam- 
moth Cave,  had  not  the  cholera  and  the  heat 
of  the  weather  made  us  dread  delay.  The 
cave,  it  is  true,  has  not  been  explored  more 
than  a  distance  of  about  twenty  miles,  which 
are  supposed  to  be  only  a  beginning  of  its  sub- 
terraneous ramifications  :  but  a  cavern  twenty 


250  THE  WABASH. 

miles  under  ground,  which  contains,  as  this  is 
said  to  contain,  two  hundred  and  twenty-six 
avenues,  forty-seven  domes,  many  rivers,  and 
eight  cataracts,  would  appear  rather  extensive 
to  a  mere  British  stranger.  I  should  have 
liked  to  see  the  underground  natural  "  church", 
big  enough  to  contain  five  thousand  sittings ; 
the  "  haunted  room"  in  which  the  two  Indian 
mummies  were  found;  "  Goram's  dome",  six 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  high ;  and  the  "  bot- 
tomless pit",  into  which  visitors  are  let  down 
by  cords  tied  round  their  waists.  I  should 
have  gladly  seen  the  walls  and  roofs  of  po- 
lished stalactites,  and  the  floors  covered  with 
sulphate  of  lime  as  white  as  snow  and  spark- 
ling like  diamonds: — to  have  taken  boat  in 
the  underground  river  and  have  floated  to  the 
"rocky  mountains",  as  they  term  a  vast  ridge 
of  stalactites  in  one  of  these  immense  halls. 
But  as  several  days  would  have  been  required 
to  investigate  this  wondrous  cavern,  and  as  the 
beautiful  scenery  around  it  would  doubtless 
have  seduced  us  still  further  from  our  route, 
we  resisted  temptation ;  and  talked  of  the 
puny  caverns  of  Matlock  and  of  Torquay,  to 


CHAP.  IX. THE    OHIO.  251 

prove  that  we  already  knew  what  the  inside 
of  the  world  was  like.  We  resisted  temp- 
tation, and  turned  our  backs  on  green  Ken- 
tucky. 

I  did  not  like  Maddison.  I  heard  that 
cholera  was  in  the  town :  and  the  hotel,  the 
Maddison  House,  was  uncomfortable  and  ex- 
orbitant in  its  charges.  I  noted  it  in  my. me- 
morandum book  as  to  be  avoided  : — a  rather 
amusing  caution  on  the  part  of  one  who  was 
not  very  likely  to  travel  that  road  again  during 
the  present  conformation  of  this  globe  and 
universe  !  We  slept  here  one  night ;  and,  on 
the  following  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  took 
our  seats  in  the  railway  cars  for  Indianapolis. 
I  had  had  much  discussion  in  the  office  to  in- 
duce them  to  take  my  luggage,  which  they 
insisted  ought  to  follow  by  a  goods  train,  as 
there  was  some  wonderful  hill  to  be  ascended, 
and  great  weight  would  be  trying  to  the  en- 
gine. However,  the  matter  was  settled  at  last 
in  consideration  of  four  and  a  half  dollars 
being  paid  for  extra  luggage. 

After  leaving  Maddison,  we  soon  came  to 
this  hill  up  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  to  the  table 


252  THE  WABASH. 

land  above.  It  was  a  very  steep  inclined 
plane — steeper  than  any  I  have  seen  in  Eng- 
land or  Wales ;  but  a  magnificent  engine, 
made  in  England,  drew  us  slowly  to  the  top. 
We  then  passed  through  a  country  that  was 
very  pleasing.  Forests  of  oak  and  beech  trees 
covered  the  land;  except  where,  here  and 
there,  they  had  been  removed  from  some  small 
clearing,  some  farmhouse,  village  or  rising 
town.  The  cars  rattled  through  many  of  these, 
in  the  very  streets  of  which  the  stumps  of  the 
recent  forest  yet  stood,  two  or  three  feet  above 
ground,  and  obliged  all  wayfarers  to  turn  aside. 
Hence  the  origin  of  the  American  expression 
"  to  be  stumped."  The  busy  community  had 
not  yet  had  time  to  dig  them  up.  This  would 
be  done  when  they  were  more  settled.  Through 
the  shady  woods  (it  was  a  hot  day  in  June), 
through  the  shady  woods,  beautiful  cool  ra- 
vines opened  into  the  boundless  forest :  adown 
them,  leapt  and  sparkled  bright  rivulets  that 
ouo-ht  to  have  harboured  delicious  trout.  I 
was  told  that  they  contained  no  fish ;  as  the 
waters  quite  disappear  during  the  summer 
months.    This  scenery  was  much  more  pleasing 


CHAP.   IX. THE    OHIO.  253 

than  that  we  had  heretofore  passed  through ; 
inasmuch  as  beech,  oak  and  other  trees  had 
replaced  the  monotonous  Scotch  firs  of  Xew 
York  and  the  north  of  Ohio  States  ;  and,  when 
they  occasionally  opened  and  showed  us  small 
prairies  and  park-like  grounds,  I  fancied  how 
pleasant  a  backwoodsman's  life  would  be  in 
such  a  scenery,  in  such  a  sunny  climate.  We 
were  determined  to  be  pleased  with  Indiana ; 
and  already  discovered  that  the  manners  of  the 
"  Hoosiers,"  as  its  inhabitants  are  familiarly 
called,  were  much  more  gentle  and  considerate 
than  those  of  the  go-a-head  "  Buckeys"  of  Ohio 
State.  I  had  much  pleasant  and  instructive 
talk  with  one  or  two  persons  in  the  cars ;  and 
we  were,  altogether,  highly  gratified  by  this 
very  decided  advance  towards  the  Far  West, 
the  backwoods  and  the  prairies  of  North  Ame- 
rica. 

At  two  o'clock,  we  arrived  at  Indianapolis, 
the  capital  of  the  state.  We  had  come  a  dis- 
tance of  eighty-six  miles  in  seven  hours ; — • 
slow  work,  but  the  inclined  plane  had  delayed 
us.  We  had  paid  two  dollars  and  a  half  per 
grown  up  person  for  our  places,  which  perhaps 


254  THE  WABASH. 

was  rather  dear.  But  the  cars  were  perfectly 
comfortable :  the  managers  and  people  had 
been  very  attentive  and  obliging :  and,  in  short, 
we  had  had  a  very  pleasant  ride. 


CHAPTER  X. 


INDIANAPOLIS. 

Hotel  at  Indianapolis. — Punkahs. — Manners  of  Americans. — 
A  "gone  'coon." — Difficulty  of  going  further. — An  isolated 
priest. — Colonel  and  Mrs.  Drake. — Plan  of  American  cities. — 
A  morning  visit. — A  spirit  shop. — The  Capitol. — Walks. — 
Buying  horses. — Buying  a  wagon. — A  carpenter. — American 
English. — Buying  a  location. — The  Indiana  Sentinel. — Ame- 
rican newspapers. — Fashionable  shops. 

Mr.  Turtle,  the  proprietor  or  manager  of  the 
Wright's  House  hotel  at  Indianapolis,  seemed 
to  think  his  premises  already  too  full  to  ac- 
commodate my  party ;  but  he  showed  me  a 
wing  of  the  house,  running  back  between  yards 
and  gardens,  which  I  could  have  if  the  apart- 
ment would  suit  me.  There  were  several  bed- 
rooms, side  by  side,  all  communicating  with  an 
open  balcony  and  trellis- wood  shaded  by  roses 
and  jasmines  in  full  bloom.  We  were  seduced 
by  the  freshness  of  the  flowers ;  and  engaged 
the  rooms  at  once  by  the  week.  We  did  not 
consider  that,  there  being  no  second  story  over 


256  THE  WABASH. 

that  wing  of  the  house,  the  sun  would  strike 
through  the  tiles  and  roof,  and  raise  the  tem- 
perature of  our  rooms  to  that  of  a  moderately- 
heated  oven.  When  we  discovered  this  to  be 
the  case,  it  was  too  late  to  change :  and  we 
comforted  ourselves  by  opening  the  doors  upon 
the  flowery  balcony  and  the  windows  opposite : 
we  so  secured  a  current  of  air — heated  but  re- 
freshing. 

We  went  down  to  dinner  in  a  large  room  on 
the  ground  floor.  There  were  not  above  a 
dozen  other  persons  at  table ;  so  that  we  con- 
stituted half  the  company.  Here  we  first  saw 
in  use  what,  in  the  East  Indies,  were  called 
"  punkas" : — above  the  whole  length  of  the 
dinner  table,  several  light  frameworks  of  wood, 
covered  with  paper,  were  swung  upon  hinges 
from  the  ceiling,  and  hung  down  within  a 
couple  of  feet  of  the  tablecloth :  a  cord  passed 
through  and  was  knotted  to  the  bottom  of  each 
framework,  and  was  then  carried  on  through 
pullies  to  the  further  side  of  the  room.  This 
a  negro  waiter  boy  was  pulling  steadily,  and  so 
caused  the  hanging  screens  to  wave  backwards 
and  forwards  above  the  table  ;  thus  not  only  a 


CHAP.    X. INDIANAPOLIS.  257 

delicious  current  of  air  was  kept  up,  but,  also, 
the  flies  were  dispersed  that  congregated,  in 
black  patches,  upon  the  dishes  whenever  the 
lad  paused  to  rest  in  his  monotonous  exercise. 
It  was  a  most  simple  and  inexpensive,  but  a 
most  delightful  way  of  being  fanned. 

The  company  consisted  of  either  boarders  in 
the  house  or  travellers.  They  were  all  quite 
inoffensive.  Indeed  all  Americans  are  so  at 
their  meals.  As  they  grudge  every  minute 
which  they  steal  from  business  for  the  purposes 
of  eating,  and  as  they  never,  or  scarcely  ever 
drink  wine,  beer  or  spirits,  they  have  every 
motive  to  be  silent  and  none  to  talk.  Although 
they,  of  course,  want  the  polish  of  the  highest 
circles,  their  manners  are  very  much  better 
than  those  of  the  same  class  in  England  :  and, 
indeed,  their  universal  politeness  to  women  is 
unequalled,  unapproached  even  by  any  class  in 
any  country.  Here  are  no  fussy  petits  serins 
and  fidgeting  complimentary  interference, 
such  as  Sterne  finds  so  delightful :  but  a  show 
of  genuine  respect  for  a  petticoat  by  whomso- 
ever worn.  In  no  saloon,  in  no  steamboat 
throughout  the  United  States,  will  any  man,  of 


258  THE  WABASH. 

whatsoever  rank,  retain  a  seat  while  any  wo- 
man of  whatsoever  rank  is  standing  without 
one.     Like  Byron,  they 

"  reverence  a  petticoat : 
A  garment  of  a  mystical  sublimity, 
Whether  it  be  of  muslin,  silk,  or  dimity." 

But  though  the  Americans  do  not  drink 
wine  or  beer  at  these  tables  d'hote,  they  are  not 
sparing  of  iced  water,  the  one  universal  luxury. 
Here,  also,  for  the  first  time,  we  saw  tea  drunk 
at  dinner  :  large  boilers  full  of  tea  were  stand- 
ing on  a  side  table,  and  the  women  especially 
were  frequent  applicants  for  it.  I  tried  the 
mixture;  and  can  truly  recommend  a  large 
bowl  of  strong  tea,  with  a  large  lump  of  ice 
floating  and  quickly  melting  in  the  middle  of 
it,  as  being  most  palatable, — at  a  midday- 
dinner  during  the  clog  days. 

But  now  I  found  that  I  was  fairly  stumped; 
I  was  done  for  ;  I  was  a  gone  'coon.  Having 
told  the  reader  the  meaning  of  the  former  ex- 
pression, I  may  as  well  here  remark  the  deriva- 
tion of  the  latter  phrase,  which  I  now  often 
heard  around  me.  It  seems  that  some  cele- 
brated   sportsman,    some    American    Colonel 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  259 

Hawker,  being  out  with  his  gun  that  was 
never  known  to  miss  its  aim,  espied  a  racoon 
in  a  tree  and  levelled  his  piece. 

"  Don't  give  yourself  the  trouble,  Colonel 
Hawker;"  said  the  poor  animal.  "  I  know  my 
fate.  You  never  miss.  Don't  trouble  your- 
self to  fire.  I  conclude  to  come  down  to  you. 
\    I  am  a  gone  'coon." 

My  situation  at  Indianapolis,  I  found  to  be 
about  as  helpless  as  that  of  the  'coon.  I  had 
come  by  steamboat  and  railway  as  far  as  rail- 
way or  steamboat  could  forward  me  in  this 
direction.  Water  there  was  no  more  of;  and 
the  railways  were  completed  no  further.  It 
was  true  that  several  lines  were  planned  out, 
which  would  go  to  St.  Louis  and  the  Pacific : 
but  we  had  no  wish  to  stay  at  Indianapolis 
until  they  should  be  completed.  I  had  been 
told  that  the  stage-coach,  direct  from  Cincin- 
nati, passed  through  the  town  and  along  the 
National  Road  to  the  Mississippi :  and  to  this 
I  had  trusted.  The  stage  coach  came  rolling 
up  the  street. 

I  will  not  describe  what  has  been  described 
so  often :  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  one  body  of 


260  THE  WABASH. 

the  vehicle  held  places  for  three  with  their 
backs  to  the  horses ;  and  places  for  three  with 
their  faces  to  the  horses  ;  and  a  bench  across, 
from  door  to  door,  for  three  more,  the  only 
support  for  whose  shoulders  was  a  leathern 
strap  drawn  across  from  end  to  end.  These 
were  only  nine  places,  even  could  they  be  all 
secured,  which  was  doubtful :  and  nine  places 
would  not  suffice  to  my  party.  Moreover,  the 
coach  started  in  the  evening,  and  we  should 
have  to  travel  all  that  and  the  following  night. 
It  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  What  could  be 
done  !     I  wras  a  gone  'coon  !" 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  Mr.  Turtle  :  "  do  as  we 
all  do.  Buy  a  wagon  and  a  pair  of  horses,  and 
drive  across  the  prairie." 

The  spirit  of  adventure  was  upon  us ;  and 
the  idea  was  rather  taking. 

We  walked  out  to  evening  service.  It  was 
the  festival  of  Corpus  Christi :  and  we  called 
upon  the  priest.  Poor,  Reverend  Mr.  Gue- 
guen,  he  was  in  a  desponding  state  !  We  were 
no  longer  in  the  go-a-head  diocese  of  Cincin- 
nati ;  but  in  the  old  diocese  of  Vincennes, 
founded  by  the  French  settlers  of  Louisiana, 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  261 

where  French  clergy  and  the  apathy  of  French 
routine  have  to  contend  with  American  energy. 
Four  bare  brick  walls  were,  indeed,  roofed  in 
for  a  church  :  but  whitewash  and  plaster  there 
was  not ;  pavement  to  the  floor  there  was  not. 
There  was  a  capital  organ,  but  no  one  to  play 
on  it  or  to  sing.  Mr.  Gueguen,  himself  of 
French  origin,  had  been  there  for  many  years: 
he  had  himself  created  whatever  now  existed  ; 
but  he  seemed  to  despair  of  doing  any  more. 
He  himself  was  living,  apparently  broken- 
hearted, in  poverty  and  dirt  and  the  noise  of 
the  dozen  children  of  the  Irishman  with  whom 
he  boarded.  The  town,  indeed,  could  boast 
many  handsome  churches,  handsomely  finished 
for  every  other  denomination  of  Christians  :  but 
the  members  of  government  and  of  the  legis- 
lature met  at  Indianapolis,  as  it  was  the  capi- 
tal of  the  State  ;  and  the  clergy  of  the  several 
denominations  called  upon  all  to  subscribe  to 
their  several  funds.  He  had  not  the  spirit  to 
do  this.  When  the  clergy  of  all  other  deno- 
minations administered  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
their  churches,  they  sent  round  invitation 
cards  amongst  themselves,  and  they  all  paid 


262  THE  WABASH. 

one  another  the  compliment  of  attending  and 
partaking,  in  their  several  temples,  in  turn : 
this  kept  up  a  bond  of  good  fellowship — a 
liberal  kind  of  "  Communion  of  Saints" — in 
which  a  Catholic  priest  could  not  join.  Poor 
Mr.  Gueguen !  he  did  not  say  all  this  to  me. 
Though  he  preached  an  excellent  sermon,  he 
was  a  small  talker :  but  I  found  out  that  such 
was  his  position  relatively  to  the  others. 

He  introduced  us  to  the  great  lady  of  his 
congregation,  an  Irishwoman  by  birth,  mar- 
ried to  Colonel  Drake.  The  colonel  was  a 
thorough  American ;  and  I  saw  a  good  deal 
of  him  with  encreasing  pleasure.  There  is  so 
much  freshness  in  the  style  of  conversation, 
so  much  playful  energy  in  the  expressions  of 
these  children  of  a  fresh  new  world  !  A  lite- 
rary friend,  whom  I  should  be  proud  to  name, 
said  to  me  in  London :  "  The  Americans  have 
a  very  disagreeable  way  of  talking  through 
their  noses  :  and  yet,  when  any  one  of  them  is 
speaking  at  my  table,  I  am  very  sorry  if  an 
Englishman  interrupts  him :  I  learn  something 
new  from  the  American."  Colonel  Drake  was, 
I  think,  treasurer  for  the  State  ;  and  seemed 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  263 

to  be  a  popular  man  and  well  spoken  of  by  all. 
I  went  to  his  little  office  where  his  two  clerks 
were  writing: — seated,  indeed,  but  with  the 
left  leg  of  each  resting  upon  the  desk  beside 
the  inkstand:  the  right  leg  of  one  of  them 
was  tumbling  about  a  stool  behind  him.  The 
gallant  colonel  was  swinging  himself  upon 
three  or  four  chairs  at  once,  smoking  and  spit- 
ting out  of  the  open  window.  There  must  be 
something  very  attractive  in  these  attitudes  ; 
for  I  own  that,  by  this  time,  I  and  all  my  boys 
were  as  fond  of  balancing  ourselves  upon  two 
or  three  chairs  as  any  American  of  them  all : 
and  my  girls  loved  the  rocking  chairs  and  fans. 

Colonel  Drake  highly  approved  of  the  plan 
of  travelling  that  had  been  recommended  to 
me.  He  knew  all  that  country  and  most  of 
the  Far  West;  having  formerly  farmed  and 
dealt  largely  in  horses  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
He  himself,  I  found,  had  a  pair  of  horses  that 
he  would  sell ;  and  though  he  did  not  press 
them  upon  me,  he  offered  to  show  them.  I 
got  into  his  rough-and-ready,  and  he  drove  me 
to  his  house. 

We  passed  from  the  main  street  of  the  town, 


264  THE  WABASH. 

which  is  of  handsome  width,  with  broad  pave- 
ments on  each  side,  and  across  two  or  three 
other  streets  diverging  from  it  at  right  angles, 
and  which,  as  far  as  they  went,  gave,  also,  pro- 
mise of  being  handsome.  But  vacancies  soon 
appeared  between  the  houses  in  the  lines  in 
which  these  are,  hereafter,  to  be  completed ; 
and  more  and  more  garden  ground  was  en- 
closed around  each,  until  it  should  be  needed 
to  be  built  upon.  This  seems  to  be  the  method 
followed  in  all  these  American  towns.  The 
plan  having  been  first  laid  out  and  the  boun- 
daries of  the  township  being  denned,  build- 
ings diverge  from  the  core,  and,  here  and 
there,  dot  the  line  of  the  future  streets,  until 
they  lose  themselves  in  the  forest,  the  prairie, 
or  the  cultivated  land.  As  the  vacancies  on 
each  side  of  the  streets  are  filled  up,  side  pave- 
ments are  made,  trees  are  planted  to  over- 
shadow them,  the  centre  of  the  street  is  paved, 
and  gas  and  waterpipes  are  laid  down.  Thus 
this  city  of  Indianapolis  was,  as  yet,  but  one 
continuous  street,  with  stems  of  other  streets 
shooting  off  from  it ;  but  the  plan  of  the  rising 
town  was  definitively  settled,  and  although  the 


CHAP.    X. INDIANAPOLIS.  265 

boundaries  of  the  township  enclosed  cultivated 
and  waste  land,  like  the  walls  of  Rome,  the 
scattered  buildings  already  contained  a  popula- 
tion of  ten  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  residence  of  Colonel  Drake  was  beyond 
the  buildings,  and  stood  off  on  a  grassy  com- 
mon bestrewn  with  giant  trees  that  had  been, 
apparently,  cut  down  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  the  axeman  had  a  few  hours  of  spare  time. 
It  was  a  very  pretty  villa,  in  a  gay  flower  gar- 
den, overshadowed  by  handsome  oak  trees. 
The  interior  was  nicely,  and  even  elegantly  fur- 
nished. We  paid  our  visit  to  Mrs.  Drake,  who 
was  a  handsome,  ladylike  woman,  and  were 
then  shown  into  another  room  where  a  tray 
was  nicely  spread  with  refreshments  for  us 
The  colonel  and  I  went  to  look  at  the  horses 
— a  pair  of  remarkably  pretty  iron  greys — 
well  bred,  three  years  old  and  about  fifteen 
hands  high.  I  thought  them  rather  too  slight 
and  too  young  for  my  work  ;  but  we  harnessed 
them  to  the  rough-and-ready,  and  I  drove  them 
out  for  two  or  three  miles.  One  of  them  went 
lame: — a  sprain  or  temporary  injury,  I  believe, 
of  which  their  owner  had  not  known  anything. 


266  THE  "WABASH. 

But  I  was  fearful  of  starting  on  my  journey 
with  a  lame  horse;  and  I  drove  back  to  the  villa. 

Mrs.  Drake  had  a  very  large  family  ;  the 
eldest  of  whom,  a  nicely-drest  girl  of  twelve 
years  old,  was,  with  her  brothers  and  sisters, 
playing  about  the  garden  and  green.  None  of 
them  wore  shoes  or  stockings. 

The  colonel  himself  was  a  Protestant : — 

"  It  is  a  great  advantage  to  us,  in  this  coun- 
try," he  said  to  me,  "  that  Mrs.  Drake  is  a 
Catholic.  We  have  never  been  left  quite 
alone." 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?"  I  asked. 

"  She  has  never  been  obliged  to  cook  her 
own  dinner,"  he  explained. 

"  What  can  you  mean  ?"  I  inquired,  as  much 
in  the  dark  as  before. 

"  Almost  all  the  helps  here,  you  call  them 
servants,"  he  said,  "  are  Irish  Catholic  emi- 
grants :  and  they  have  that  feeling  towards 
Mrs.  Drake,  as  a  fellow  Catholic,  that  they 
have  never  all  left  her  at  once  without  notice 
and  without  any  one  to  do  for  her.  I  assure 
you  that  she  is  the  only  lady  in  this  county 
who  can  say  as  much." 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  267 

I  began  to  doubt  whether  it  might  not  be 
most  comfortable  to  be  located  in  a  slave  state  ! 

There  were  two  other  very  good  hotels  in 
Indianapolis,  the  arrivals  at  which  were  regu- 
larly published  in  the  newspapers!  What  more 
could  be  done  in  the  most  fashionable  water- 
ing place  X  One  of  these,  opposite  to  the  one 
we  occupied,  was  called  the  "  Capital  House": 
I  expressed  surprise  at  the  assumption  of  the 
name,  which  implied  that  it  was  the  best  house 
in  the  town  ;  but  was  told  that  it  was  to  have 
been  called  the  "  Capitol  House,"  but  that  the 
painter  had,  by  mistake,  put  an  a  for  an  o,  and 
had  not  yet  had  time  to  alter  it :  so  "  Capital 
House"  it  continued  to  be  called. 

The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  large  quan- 
tities of  iced  water  used  to  be  drunk  in  the 
bar-room  of  our  hotel.  This,  as  usual,  was 
slightly  partitioned  off  from  the  entrance  hall, 
into  which  the  reading  room,  well  supplied 
with  papers  from  all  parts  of  America,  opened. 
Spirits  were  never  drunk  ;  I  asked  the  land- 
lord for  a  little  brandy,  and  he  said  he  would 
give  me  a  pint  bottle,  but  dared  not  sell  one  : 
— he  charged  for  it,  notwithstanding,  in  the 


268  THE  WABASH. 

bill.  The  law  forbidding  the  retail  of  intoxi- 
cating drink  prevailed  here.  And  yet,  a  few 
doors  from  our  hotel,  a  speculator  was  putting 
up  a  spirit  shop,  which  was  to  be  opened  when 
the  legislature  met.  The  speculator  had  cal- 
culated that  he  would  be  informed  against  and 
fined  about  twenty  times  during  the  session  ; 
but  that  his  profits  would  still  leave  a  hand- 
some balance  in  his  favour.  I  was  glad  to 
hear  that  this  absurdly -tyrannical  law  was 
thus  to  be  openly  defied. 

The  capitol  of  Indianapolis — not  the  capital 
inn,  but  the  State  House — is  a  remarkably 
handsome  building,  of  really  good  classical 
architecture.  It  professes  to  be  modelled  some- 
what after  the  Parthenon  at  Athens.  The  pil- 
lars, as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  building,  are  of 
brick ;  but  stuccoed  and  painted  so  well  that 
close  examination  alone  can  detect  the  real 
material.  The  churches  in  the  town  are  also, 
as  I  have  before  observed,  more  than  usually 
large  and  well  built.  Domes,  spires,  and  towers 
have  arisen  that  would  do  no  discredit  to  any 
European  capital,  and  which  nobly  diversify 
the  large  plain  in  which  the  city  stands.     In 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  269 

truth,  the  situation  of  the  town  is  excellent — 
not  perhaps  as  a  commercial  emporium,  since 
it  has  no  water  carriage  ;  but  as  a  residence 
and  the  central  seat  of  government.  It  stands 
on  a  high  tableland  of  good  soil — dry  and 
healthy :  and  the  streets,  as  they  diverge 
from  the  centre,  lead  to  pleasing  walks  amid 
farms  and  forests  that  my  children  admired 
much. 

"  We  used  to  separate,"  writes  Louie,  "  into 
two  or  three  parties  and  explore  the  neigh- 
bourhood. In  one  of  these  walks,  we  passed 
a  large  cherry  orchard,  where  the  owner  was 
gathering  a  beautiful  harvest  of  fruit,  which 
he  offered  to  us  liberally.  One  walk  was  a 
particular  favourite  of  mine :  I  went  there 
first  with  my  eldest  brother  and  sister :  it  led 
through  a  beautiful  country,  and,  after  fol- 
lowing for  some  time  the  course  of  a  little 
stream,  it  terminated  suddenly  at  a  wood  and 
a  neat  frame  cottage.  Large  logs  of  timber 
lay  around  ;  and,  as  Kenelm  wished  to  explore 
the  forest  for  a  little  way,  Catharine  and  I  sat 
down  on  one  of  the  logs  to  await  his  return. 
A  most  beautiful  bird,  of  a  kind  which  we  had 


270  THE  WABASH. 

never  seen  before,  soon  perched  on  a  tree 
close  to  us  :  but  the  owner  came  out  of  the 
cottage,  accompanied  by  his  two  little  chil- 
dren, who  began  playing  about,  and  the  bird 
flew  away.  Our  brother  returned  with  a  hand- 
ful of  bright  feathers  of  different  colours  which 
he  had  found  in  the  wood,  and  a  large  chrysa- 
lis that  was,  also,  new  to  us." 

It  was  more  easy  to  find  perfect  seclusion  in 
these  country  walks,  than  even  in  our  own 
rooms : — 

"  The  parrot,"  Lucy  writes, "  had  made  her- 
self widely  known  by  her  noise  and  chatter- 
ing ;  and  several  people,  who  were  staying  in 
the  hotel,  came  to  my  bedroom,  where  she  was 
kept,  and  asked  that  she  should  be  brought 
out  on  the  terrace.  One  day,  when  I  was 
dressing  in  my  room,  some  one  tried  to  come 
in  ;  but,  finding  the  door  locked,  began  knock- 
ing authoritatively  and  crying  out  '  Open  the 
door,  won't  you,  please !'  I  did  so  ;  and  found 
a  woman  with  a  child  in  her  arms  who  was 
crying.  I  asked  her  what  she  wanted.  With- 
out the  slightest  apology  or  word  of  civility,  she 
replied  :  '  Where  's  the  bird  1    I  want  to  show 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  271 

it  to  baby :   he  's  so  cross,  I  can't  do  anything 
with  him!     Where  's  the  bird'?'" 

Free  and  easy  this  ! 

But  unless  we  wished  to  take  up  our  abode 
permanently  at  Indianapolis,  it  was  necessary 
that  I  should  procure  horses  and  a  wagon,  with 
which  to  move  onwards.  I  had  been  put  in 
communication  with  a  man,  said  to  be  knowing 
in  horseflesh,  who  proposed  to  me  to  make  an 
excursion  into  the  neighbouring  State  of  Illi- 
nois, and  there  try  to  pick  up  some,  on  their  way 
from  the  country  of  the  Missouri  to  the  old 
towns  on  the  eastern  seaboard  :  but  I  preferred 
trying  what  could  be  done  in  Indianapolis 
itself,  where  the  breed  of  horses,  in  general  use, 
was  excellent.  Market  days  came  round  ;  and 
brought  farmers  and  men  of  business  from  a 
distance  of  many  miles.  Here  I  saw  some  very 
fine  horses,  rather  too  heavy  for  me,  drawing- 
wagons  laden  with  corn  and  wheat,  which  they 
left  at  stores  and  mills,  above  which  was  in- 
scribed the  usual  promise  of  full  cash  prices 
for  everything  :  here  were  the  owners  in  their 
buggies  or  rough-and-readies,  or  riding  beau- 
tiful beasts  of  a  stamp  rather  too  light  for  my 


9,79 


THE    WABASH. 


work.  The  horses  in  the  wagons,  in  the 
buggies,  and  even  the  saddle  horses,  used  to 
be,  all  alike,  fastened  to  a  paling  or  a  gate  in 
some  retired  lane  in  the  shade,  whence  it  ap- 
peared that  any  one  could  loose  them  and 
drive  or  ride  off  with  them  miles  away  into  the 
woods  before  they  should  be  missed.  Their 
owners  had  evidently  no  fear  of  the  kind  ;  and 
I  was  assured  that  the  Americans  scorned 
stealing  and  pilfering.  They  would  overreach, 
that  is  to  say,  they  would  be  extra-sharp  in  a 
bargain  ;  but  they  would  not  demean  them- 
selves to  steal. 

At  length,  I  was  told  of  a  jobber  who  had  a 
stable  full  of  horses  which  he  would  either  sell 
or  let  to  convey  me  to  my  destination :  and  my 
wife  and  I  continued  our  walk  in  the  direction 
of  his  premises.  We  were  turning  into  them, 
when  our  guide  led  us  into  a  temperance  hotel 
bar-room,  where  tea,  sherbet  and  slops  were 
sold,  and  requested  my  wife  to  wait  there  till 
our  return.  Why  so]  "It  was  not  right  for  a 
lady  to  go  to  a  stable  yard" — "  People  would 
be  shocked" — "  It  was  not  the  custom" — "  It 
was  a  quiet  clean  stable  yard,  but  no  ladies 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  273 

went  to  such  places."  My  wife  positively  re- 
fused to  take  a  lesson  in  the  proprieties  of  her 
sex  from  a  horse  jockey  in  the  back  settle- 
ments of  America;  and  insisted  that  it  was 
more  decorous  that  she  should  accompany  her 
husband  to  a  stable,  than  remain  alone  in  a 
bar  room.  In  consequence,  our  guide  was 
near  deserting  us  as  companions  discreditable 
to  himself.  But  the  hope  of  profit  overcame 
his  sense  of  propriety  ;  and,  at  length,  he  went 
on  with  us, — muttering  that  the  shame  was 
ours,  and  that,  after  all,  people  could  only  say 
that  we  were  Britishers  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  decencies  of  life. 

The  owner  of  the  stable  seemed  to  be  doing 
business  on  a  large  scale.  He  had  twenty  or 
thirty  horses  in  his  sheds,  which  were  excel- 
lently-well kept :  but  my  wife's  perverse  inde- 
licacy in  accompanying  her  husband  to  look  at 
the  carriage  horses  he  wished  to  buy,  proved 
to  the  stablekeeper  that  we  must  be  quite 
Johnny  Raws  and  new  comers  into  the  civilised 
world ;  and  he  asked  what  I  knew  to  be  three 
times  the  value  of  his  beasts. 

"VVe  walked  away,  doubting  what  was  next 

N  3 


274  THE  WABASH. 

to  be  done.  Suddenly,  my  guide  accosted  a 
man  driving  a  yellow,  cream-coloured  horse 
that  was  drawing  a  cart  load  of  stones. 

"  Will  you  sell  that  horse,  Mr.  James  V 

"  I  guess  I  will,  if  you  make  it  worth  my 
while." 

"  Where  about  is  the  figure  V 

"  W^ell  now ;  I  don't  want  to  sell  him,  be- 
cause I  must  have  one  to  do  my  work,  and  I 
shall  have  to  buy  another :  but  there's  no  deny- 
ing that  this  one  is  a  deal  too  well  bred  to  haul 
these  stones.  I  reckon  you  won't  have  him 
under  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars." 

Meanwhile,  I  was  examining  the  beast  in 
question.  It  was  of  a  pale  yellow  cream-colour, 
not  uncommon  in  that  country,  with  black 
legs,  a  magnificent  black  mane,  and  a  tail  that 
swept  the  ground.  About  sixteen  hands  high  ; 
good  forequarter  ;  small  bone  ;  large  joints  ; 
short  natural  tufts  of  hair  on  the  fetlocks ;  good 
barrel ;  a  small  head  with  fiery  eyes  and  flam- 
ing red  nostrils.  It  was  a  beautiful  horse  ;  fit 
for  a  charger  or  a  light  brougham.  My  jockey 
whispered  to  me  that  he  knew  the  horse ;  and 
that  it  was  all  right.     I  had  him  taken  out  of 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  215 

the  shafts  and  run  along  in  hand.     His  paces 
seemed  excellent.     He  was  only  five  years  old. 

"  If  he  is  all  right,"  I  said,  "  I  will  give  one 
hundred  dollars  for  him ;"  and  I  walked  away. 

In  the  course  of  two  hours,  I  was  told  that 
the  horse  was  in  the  hotel  stable,  and  that  the 
gentleman  was  waiting  for  the  money. 

In  much  the  same  manner,  on  the  following 
day,  I  picked  up  a  noble  daik  bay  horse  with 
black  legs :  he  was  six  years  old,  about  one 
inch  higher  than  the  buff,  with  a  somewhat 
larger  and  shorter  body  ;  with  high  action,  full 
of  fire  and  speed.  For  this,  I  gave  ninety 
dollars. 

I  had  much  difficulty  in  getting  a  wagon  to 
my  taste.  I  had,  of  course,  understood  that  I 
was  to  have  a  spring  wagon ;  but  was  now 
assured  that  no  springs  could  stand  the  rough- 
ness of  the  roads  1  should  have  to  pass :  and 
in  evidence  of  this,  I  was  taken  to  see  those  of 
the  stage  coaches.  Sure  enough,  no  iron  en- 
tered into  their  composition ;  but  the  body  of 
the  carriage  swung  from  side  to  side  on  the 
thickest  possible  doubled  and  quintupled  lea- 
thern thongs.      To  a  wagon  without  springs, 


276  THE  WABASH. 

we  had,  therefore,  to  resign  ourselves.  I  was 
taken  to  see  several ;  but  they  all  came  from 
Illinois  State,  and  were  too  narrow  in  the  body 
to  suit  my  agricultural  tastes : — for  we  had 
planned  that  the  horses  would  serve  our  turn 
during  the  following  winter  at  St.  Louis,  in 
whatever  carriage  the  fashion  of  the  city  might 
offer,  while  the  wagon  could  be  laid  by  until 
required  on  my  son's  "  location."  At  length, 
I  found  an  emigrant  German  wheelwright  who 
had  just  finished  a  wagon  that  was  much 
after  my  own  European  imaginings.  I  sug- 
gested some  additions,  and  paid  for  the  whole 
as  follows : — to  some,  who  may  think  of  emi- 
grating, these  details  may  be  useful : — 

Indianapolis,  June  26,  1851. 

To  S.  HETSELGESER.  Dr. 

For  one  wagon 

„  bed 

Making  seat 

Step  and  staples  for  the  seat 
Making  bows  (for  the  cover) 
Four  removes  of  shoes 

78     50 

I  bought  a  drag  and  chain  for  two  dollars 
more,  and  a  capital  cover  of  drill,  made  up 


)olls. 
65 

Cents 
0 

9 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

2 

0 

0 

50 

CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  277 

complete,  for  three  dollars  and  thirty-five  cents. 
Nothing  was  then  wanting  to  our  outfit  but 
harness  and  a  whip.  Here,  I  believe,  I  was 
rather  extravagant.  I  had  first  bought  a  set 
of  ordinary  harness  which,  when  brought  to 
the  hotel,  I  had  refused  to  pay  for  until  my 
horse  jockey  friend  should  be  able  to  inspect  it 
and  say  that  it  was  complete :  but  the  saddler 
had  no  idea  that  an  emigrant,  who  had  bought 
wagon  and  horses,  should  not  be  able  to  look 
over  and  understand  his  own  harness ;  and, 
therefore,  carried  it  back  to  his  shop — naturally 
supposing  that  I  had  intended  to  clap  it  on  the 
horses  and  drive  away  without  payment.  I 
had,  therefore,  to  go  to  another  tradesman ; 
and  was  seduced  into  purchasing  a  very  tidy 
set  of  new,  light,  wagon  harness,  for  which  I 
gave  twenty  dollars,  and  the  very  dandiest 
whip  that  emigrant  ever  handled.  It  cost  me 
three  dollars  and  a  half;  and  I  was  so  proud  of 
it,  that  I  carried  it  back  to  the  hotel  myself ; 
and,  soon  after,  had  my  horses  decked  in  their 
new  gear  and  harnessed  to  my  new  wagon, 
that  I  might  try  the  whole  in  proper  style. 
The  black  ostler  held  their  heads  admiringly, 


278  THE  WABASH. 

as  I  mounted  the  bench,  which  I  had  had 
swung  from  side  to  side,  in  front,  as  a  driving 
seat.  I  turned  into  the  High  Street  of  India- 
napolis :  and  what  a  dash  I  cut !  The  horses 
pawed  and  pranced ;  and  away  we  flew,  at  a 
capital  pace  !  They  were  stepping  beautifully 
together  and  lifting  high  their  fore  legs,  when 
a  gentleman  on  horseback  rode  after  me  and 
stopped  me. 

"  I  say,  stranger !"  he  cried  ;  "  what  will  you 
sell  them  two  horses  for  V 

I  tossed  my  head  disdainfully  and  drove  on  : 
but  twice  more,  before  I  got  to  the  end  of  the 
street,  was  I  stopped  by  the  same  question 
from  other  people.  I  returned  to  the  inn  de- 
lighted. I  had  not  thought  a  wagoner  could 
be  so  proud  of  his  team  ! 

Some  of  our  boxes  had  need  to  be  repaired  ; 
and  I  sent  for  a  carpenter  to  the  hotel.  A  na- 
tive American  came  with  his  man.  I  was  much 
struck  with  the  manner  and  cleverness  with 
which  he  handled  his  tools.  He  had  made  me 
a  new  packing  case  which  had  to  be  nailed 
down,  planed  and  fitted.  In  Europe  four  tools 
Would  have  been  required  for  this — a  gimlet, 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  279 

a  hammer,  a  plane,  and  a  pair  of  pincers :  here 
one  sufficed.  He  never  thought  of  using  a 
gimlet,  but  struck  the  nails  in,  unerringly, 
with  the  hammer-shaped  end  of  his  adze ;  a 
slit  in  this  sufficed  to  draw  out  old  nails  with  ; 
while  the  adze  itself  answered  the  purpose  of 
a  plane.  I  never  saw  carpenter  get  through 
his  work  more  neatly  and  so  expeditiously. 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  I  reckon  that  you  are  not 
British  ;  you  have  not  the  accent  of  the  Irish 
and  Scotch,  and  you  do  not  talk  like  the  Eng- 
lish ;  what  country  do  you  come  from  V 

"  We  are  English,"  I  replied ;  "  all  born 
and  raised,  as  you  call  it,  in  England." 

"  Impossible !  you  do  not  talk  English  like 
true  British." 

"  What  is  the  difference  V\ 

"  You  do  not  say  '  ouse'  and  '  and'  for  house 
and  hand :  all  the  children,  and  all  of  you, 
pronounce  all  these  words  like  Americans,  and 
not  as  real  English  emigrants  pronounce  them. 
Their  way  of  speaking  makes  us  always  say 
that  we  talk  better  English  than  the  English 
themselves." 

I  had,  indeed,  often  heard  the  Americans 


280  THE    WABASH. 

laughed  at  for  saying  so  ;  but  now  the  matter 
was  explained.  My  carpenter  repeated  with 
great  accuracy,  various  instances  of  provincial- 
isms and  vulgarisms  which  he,  and  all  of  them, 
had  noticed,  more  or  less,  in  all  the  English 
emigrants  who  had  come  amongst  them.  See- 
ing none  of  any  other  class,  they  naturally 
supposed  that  all  English  people  pronounced 
the  language  in  the  same  manner;  and  so 
prided  themselves  upon  the  superiority  of 
American  English.  For,  notwithstanding  the 
disagreeable  nasal  tone  and  drawling  whine  in 
which  most  of  them  speak,  and  notwithstand- 
ing a  few  national  phrases  and  the  peculiar 
use  and  pronunciation  of  certain  words,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  American  people, 
in  general,  speak  English  without  provincial 
dialect  or  vulgarisms.  Whence,  in  fact,  could 
they  acquire  such  %  since  all  the  emigrants 
they  see  come  from  different  parts  of  England, 
the  provincialisms  of  the  one  neutralise  those 
of  the  other. 

The  wages  of  a  good  journeyman  carpenter 
or  smith  here  are  from  one  to  one  and  a  half 
dollar  per  day,  besides  board.      I  paid  my 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  281 

carpenter  a  two  dollar  note,  which,  after  a  few 
hours,  he  brought  back,  saying  that  he  could 
not  pass  it — that  people  said  it  was  a  forgery. 
I  replied  that  he  should  have  looked  at  it 
when  he  took  it ;  that  I  could  not  tell  whether 
it  was  the  same  I  gave  him  or  not.  Mr. 
Turtle,  however,  informed  me  that  the  oath  of 
the  receiver  was  always  taken  as  evidence  of 
that  question  in  a  court  of  justice.  The  note 
was  examined  by  every  one  in  the  bar  :  some 
said  it  was  genuine,  some  not.  I  afterwards 
paid  it  away  without  question  to  a  branch  of  the 
bank  by  which  it  purported  to  have  been  issued. 

During  my  stay  here,  other  lands  had  been 
recommended  to  me.  I  will  copy  the  descrip- 
tions I  received.  Such  familiarise  one  with 
a  foreign  country,  and  help  to  bring  its  ways 
before  the  mind : — 

180  acres,  of  which  65  cleared,  in  Switzer- 
land county,  good  house  :  price,  seven  thousand 
dollars. 

240  acres,  Carrol  county,  wood :  one  thou- 
sand dollars. 

200  acres,  near  Maddison,  unimproved :  one 
hundred  and  ten  dollars  per  acre. 


282  THE    WABASH. 

640  acres  in  Posey  county,  two  miles  from 
the  Ohio. 

400  in  Knox  county,  overflowing  Wabash 
bottom,  ten  miles  from  Vincennes. 

500  in  Clay  and  Owen,  in  the  valley  of  Eel 
River,  one  or  two  miles  of  canal  from  Terre 
Haute  to  Evansville. 

Then  I  had  letters  from  Illinois,  one  of 
which  recommended  to  me  "  a  tract  of  land  of 
1300  acres,  with  about  70  or  80  acres  of  im- 
proved land  upon  it,  with  a  commodious  dwell- 
ing 46  feet  by  50  feet,  two  and  a  half  stories, 
frame,  good  cellars,  the  two  first  stories  four 
fine  rooms  in  each  ;  a  hall  in  each  story.  The 
third  story,"  I  continue  to  quote  the  letter, 
"  is  deck  roof,  with  at  least  a  dozen  small 
rooms.  Orchard  adjoining,  and  tolerable  barn. 
A  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  in  another  part  of 
the  farm,  is  one  of  the  best  barns  in  this 
county,  with  cellar  :  the  barn  is  74  feet  by  54 
feet,  and  a  comfortable  dwelling  hard  by. 
This  property,  I  think,  can  be  purchased  for 
four  thousand  dollars  or  thereabouts  ;  the  im- 
provements are  worth  more  than  the  above 
amount,  and  have  cost  at  least  double  as  much. 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  283 

Should  you  wish  for  more  than  the  above  land 
in  this  tract,  there  is  plenty  for  sale  adjoining 
which  you  can  purchase  at  from  one  dollar  to 
six  dollars  per  acre.  There  is  no  part  of  the 
western  country  more  healthy. 

k*  The  land  mentioned  is  eight  miles  from 
Schauneetown,  on  the  railroad  in  the  direction 
of  St.  Louis.  The  railroad  was  projected  some 
fourteen  years  ago,  and  abandoned,  and  is  now 
used  as  a  state  road.  The  main  dwelling  is 
forty  rods  from  the  road  :  the  smaller  dwelling 
and  main  barn  are  on  the  road." 

Such  letters  as  the  above  (which,  to  one 
who  has  been  in  the  backwoods,  bring  the 
whole  scene  before  the  mind  in  the  vividness 
of  true  description)  such  letters  as  the  above, 
proved  to  me  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  deter- 
mine hastily  upon  anything.  I  had  much  to 
see  in  Illinois ;  and  I  determined  to  make 
Vandalia,  the  capital  of  that  state,  my  head- 
quarters for  a  week  or  two. 

Some  readers  may  like  to  know  how  a  news- 
paper is  conducted  in  the  backwoods.  For 
these,  I  will  describe  a  number  of  the  Daily 
Indiana  State  Sentinel,  which  I  brought  away 


284  THE  WABASH. 

with  me.  It  is  printed  on  very  fair  paper, 
about  as  large  as  the  English  Globe,  and  is 
"  published  every  evening  at  five  dollars  per 
annum  in  advance" — not  quite  one  guinea  a 
year.  The  rates  of  advertisements  are  said  to 
be  "  fifty  cents  for  eight  lines  or  less,  one  inser- 
tion, and  twenty- five  cents  for  each  additional 
insertion :  announcing  candidates  for  office,  one 
dollar  each  line :  all  advertisements  for  cha- 
ritable institutions,  fire  companies,  ward,  town- 
ship, and  other  public  meetings  and  such  like 
to  be  charged  half  price :  marriages  and  deaths 
inserted  without  charge :  obituary  notices  and 
funeral  invitations  to  be  charged  half  price." 
After  a  report  of  the  California  Democratic 
Convention,  the  first  page  is  rilled  with  adver- 
tisements which  are  intended  to  be  as  attrac- 
tive as  possible.  I  say  nothing  of  the  three 
Insurance  Companies  which  compete  for  pub- 
lic favour:  nor  of  the  railroads  that  preface 
their  notices  by  little  prints  of  smoking  engines, 
which  show,  by  the  by,  the  driver,  as  every- 
where on  American  lines,  standing  under  a 
shade  to  protect  him  from  the  sun  and  the 
rain :  I  say  nothing  of  the  Odd  Fellows  and 


CHAP.  X. INDIANAPOLIS.  285 

Freemasons,  who  issue  their  notices  amid  eyes 
and  hands  and  hearts,  and  suns  and  triangles 
and  compasses,  which  they  alone  understand : 
I  say  nothing  of  the  convenient  tables,  which  tell 
the  hours  at  which  all  mails  arrive  at  and  leave 
Indianapolis,  the  statement  wThen  the  different 
courts  will  hold  their  respective  sessions,  or  of 
the  bank  report  of  the  current  value  of  notes 
and  moneys  ;  or  of  the  yearly  almanack  :  but 
my  eye  is  caught  by  the  pretty  little  prints  of 
gentlemen  making  their  best  bows  and  little 
boys  walking  hand-in-hand — all  sprucely  drest 
and  calling  attention  to  so  many  clothing  em- 
poriums ;  of  stoves  announcing  "  Something 
new  which  cannot  be  beat  —  Jenny  Lind's 
cooking  stove";  and  of  a  great  boot  upon 
wheels,  smoking  like  the  funnel  of  a  steam 
engine,  and  followed  by  four  shoes  of  different 
sizes  racing  after  it  on  wheels,  while  "  Fair- 
banks" exclaims,  "  Clear  the  track  !"  and  bids 
you  "call  and  examine  for  yourself"  his  supply 
of  boots  and  shoes. 

But,  leaving  the  pictorial  advertisements,  I 
own  that  I  like  the  matter  of  fact,  business 
style  of  the  others,  which  go  strait  to  the  point 


286  THE  WABASH. 

without  circumlocution.  Messrs.  Robins  or  Da- 
niel Smith  and  Son  would,  doubtless, be  scanda- 
lized by  the  advertisement  of  an  estate  agent, 
which  begins  with  the  following  modest  phrase- 
ology: "I  am  authorized  by  the  Probate  Court 
to  make  sale  of  the  following  real  estate:"  and, 
after  describing  the  property  in  quiet  language 
and  quiet  type,  concludes  thus : — "  I  can  be 
found  at  my  residence  four  miles  south-east  of 
Jacksonville,  and  letters  addressed  to  Wallace, 
Fountain  County,  will  reach  me,  J.  A.  White." 
Our  great  auctioneers  would  think  it  impos- 
sible to  introduce  properties,  and,  still  less, 
themselves  to  the  world  without  the  bombast 
of  large  type  and  advertisements  costing  five 
pounds  each,  or  something  thereabouts : — (I 
have  had  to  dispute  the  bill  of  one  of  them, 
which  charged  upwards  of  eight  hundred 
pounds  for  advertizing  and  offering  for  sale  an 
estate  on  which  he  only  sold  the  household 
furniture:) — and  yet  Ithe  Americans  manage 
to  do  business  notwithstanding. 

What  can  be  more  curt  and  intelligible  than 
the  following : — 

"  Ladies !   I  have  this  day  received  a  new 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  287 

assortment  of  fine  ribbons,  silks,  lawns,  ba- 
reges, de  laines,  etc.  Please  call  and  examine 
them  at  the  cheap  store  of  H.  Parrish." 

"  Cheese.  A  good  supply  constantly  on 
hand  at  V.  Hanna  and  Co.'s." 

"Wanted.  50,000  pounds  of  bacon,  for 
which  the  market  price  in  cash  will  be  paid 
by  Ely  the  and  Holland." 

I  own,  however,  that  I  do  not  understand 
the  following: — "Vices — superior  quality  at 
reduced  prices.  Call  at  Wainwright  and  Bro- 
thers." In  Europe,  vices  are  not  advertised 
for  sale.     We  have  not  any. 

Let  it  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  all 
American  advertisements  are  as  condensed  as 
those  I  have  quoted :  I  give  them  as  samples 
of  a  particular  style  ;  some  are  almost  as  florid 
as  Moses  and  Son  themselves  could  desire  ;  but 
the  earnestness  of  men  of  business  is  the  cha- 
racteristic of  most  of  them.  Amongst  other 
advertisements,  I  see  that  the  governor  of  In- 
diana makes  proclamation  of  one  hundred 
dollars  reward  "  for  the  capture  of  a  man 
charged  with  murder,  who  had  broken  jail ; 
(in  England  it  would  have  been  pounds  in- 


288  THE  WABASH. 

stead  of  dollars,  with  no  greater  likelihood  of 
catching  him) ;  and  the  list  of  tolls  payable 
on  the  "  Central  Plankroad",  but  which,  how- 
ever, were  not  to  be  exacted  from  those  "  going 
to  or  returning  from  Militia  musterings,  from 
any  religious  meeting  on  the  Sabbath,  or  from 
any  state,  town,  or  county  election,  or  from 
any  funeral  procession." 

It  is  not  such  a  barbarous  country,  after  all ! 
This  reference  to  funeral  processions  reminds 
me  of  the  style  of  American  newspaper  obitu- 
ary. Much  trouble  and  inquiry,  at  a  time  of 
family  distress,  is  avoided  by  the  usual  addition 
to  the  notice  of  death,  which  says  where  and 
at  what  hour  the  funeral  will  take  place,  and 
that  "  the  relatives  and  friends  are  respectfully 
invited  to  attend  without  further  invitation:" 
then,  if  the  deceased  is  connected  with  any 
other  part  of  the  country,  Wisconsin  State,  for 
example,  a  notice  usually  follows,  thus,  "  Wis- 
consin papers  please  copy." 

But  my  Indiana  State  Sentinel  is  not  entirely 
given  up  to  advertisements  :  here  are  leading- 
articles  and  paragraphs  on  matters  of  general 
political  interests  in  much  the  same  style  and 


CHAP.    X. INDIANAPOLIS.  289 

of  the  average  ability  of  those  we  should  meet 
with  in  English  provincial  papers.  If  any  dif- 
ference is  visible  in  them,  it  is  that  they 
are  more  courteous  to  their  contemporaries, 
and  deal  less  in  the  vein  of  the  Eatanswill 
Gazette  than  our  own  country  press.  I  have 
read  a  paragraph  in  a  New  York  paper  which 
announced  the  publication  of  another  opposi- 
tion paper  which  would  take  quite  a  different 
line  in  politics,  and  said,  that  the  editor  of 
the  new  organ  was  a  man  of  so  great  ability, 
that  it,  the  old  established  paper,  could  not 
doubt  of  the  success  it  wished  him.  This  was 
not  the  greeting  which  our  established  papers 
give  to  new  adventurers. 

In  the  Indiana  Sentinel,  there  is  the  following 
notice,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  country 
and  shews  the  scarcity  of  servants :  "  Our 
carrier  has  been  sick  for  the  past  few  days, 
and  we  have  been  unable  to  procure  a  compe- 
tent one  to  fill  his  place.  We  hope  our  sub- 
scribers will  be  patient  if  any  errors  should 
occur  in  delivering  the  papers,  and  if  they  will 
call  at  the  office  we  will  rectify  them.     Our 


290  THE  WABASH. 

carrier  will  probably  be  able   to   resume  his 
duties  on  to-morrow." 

Those  who  study  educational  statistics  may 
be  interested  in  drawing  comparisons  with  the 
statement  that,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
visiting  committee,  the  numbers  of  children 
attending  the  various  Sunday  schools  in  In- 
dianapolis during  the  past  month  were  1818 
Promised  to  send  -         -         -  70 

Refused  to  send  -----      32 


Total  number  of  children  in  the  city  -  1920 

When,  in  England,  shall  we  see  all  the  chil- 
dren, except  one  hundred  and  two,  attend 
the  Sunday  schools  attached  to  the  different 
churches  in  a  city  of  upwards  of  eight  thou- 
sand inhabitants  1  In  my  parish,  in  Devon- 
shire, the  only  school  is  the  one  attached  to 
the  parish  church  :  and  the  clergyman  refused 
permission  to  attend  it  to  children  who  had 
been  baptized  by  dissenting  teachers. 

Thus,  although  in  the  backwoods,  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  wTe  had  no  evidence  of 
refinement  in  Indianapolis.  The  men,  it  is 
true,   dressed   sensibly  in  grey  holland   coats 


CHAP.   X. INDIANAPOLIS.  291 

and  vests ;  I  bought  a  suit  myself,  which  is 
still  my  comfort  in  hot  weather :  but  the  ladies 
were  as  refined  and  elegant  as  in  New  York. 
The  druggists,  and  storekeepers,  had  every  sort 
of  Parisian  perfumery  and  female  elegancies 
on  sale :  French  gloves,  eau  de  Cologne,  and 
everything  that  an  European  elegante  could 
require.  We  rejoiced  in  this  evidence  of  their 
prosperity  and  leisure,  as  we  replenished  the 
bottles  and  drawers  of  our  family  medicine 
chest.  Then,  little  anticipating  how  soon  we 
should  be  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  them, 
light  of  heart  and  full  of  hope,  we  clambered 
up  into  our  new  wagon,  and  [on  this  very  day 
three  years — I  am  writing  on  the  27th  of 
June,  1854]  our  beautiful  horses  started  forth, 
with  a  will,  on  our  journey  across  the  prairies 
of  Illinois  to  the  banks  of  the  mighty  Missis- 
sippi. 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE    WAGON. 

Our  new  equipage. — Its  triumphs  and  pleasures. — Highway 
robbers. — Baiting. — The  Cholera  House. — Long's  House. — 
An  American  woman. — Mount  Meridian. — The  National  Road. 
— Mr.  Townsend. — Evening  fancies. — Records  of  children. — 
Dr.  Ushaw's. — A  land-jobber. — Van  Buren.  —  Premonitory 
symptoms. 

I  had  hired  Morrison,  as  the  man  who  had 
helped  me  to  purchase  my  horses  and  wagon 
was  called,  to  convey  our  luggage  with  his  own 
two  horses  and  wagon  from  Indianapolis  to 
Vandalia.  A  heavy  load  it  was  for  his  miserable 
cattle  ;  and  as  he  started  with  it  from  the  door 
of  Wright's  House,  I  doubted  whether  they 
would  be  able  to  accomplish  what  he  had  un- 
dertaken :  but  he  was  to  hire  additional  horses 
if  necessary.  Carpet-bags  and  such  light 
articles,  were  thrown  into  the  bottom  of  our 
own  wagon  ;  as  we  thought  that  they  would 
make  convenient  seats  for  the  children.  The 
body  of  the  vehicle  was  then  filled  half  way  up 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  293 

with  hay  and  straw,  that  they  might  less  feel 
the  shaking  and  the  jolting.  The  cages  of  the 
parrot  and  of  the  canary  birds  were  tied  to 
the  hoops,  on  which  the  canvas  awning  was 
stretched,  overhead :  and,  amid  much  fun  and 
laughter,  the  children  helped,  lifted  and  tum- 
bled one  another  into  their  places.  My  wife 
and  I  scrambled  up  to  the  bench,  which  I  had 
had  made  and  swung  across,  on  straps,  under 
the  awning  in  front.  T  handled  my  beautiful 
whip  and  shook  the  reins ;  and  away  our 
horses  started  at  a  good  trot.  The  Indiana- 
politans  looked  after  us  admiring,  and  thought 
we  had  a  most  perfect  turn  out  for  the  prairie 
and  the  backwoods. 

"  How  little,"  said  my  wife  to  me,  as  she 
pressed  my  arm,  "  how  little  happiness  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  external  attributes  of  wealth 
or  rank  !  According  to  my  earliest  recollec- 
tions of  travel,  I  always  rode  on  an  elephant, 
and  was  surrounded  with  body  guards — when 
my  father  was  deputed  to  the  Nepaul  coun- 
try after  the  war.  Since  then,  have  I  ever 
watched  the  building  of  a  carriage  in  Long 
Acre,  or  driven  in  May  Fair,  with  as  much 


294  THE    WABASH. 

pleasure  as  that  with  which  we  have  marked 
the  finishing  of  this  wagon  in  the  wheel- 
wright's shop,  and  are  now  starting  on  our 
travels  through  the  Far  West  V 

We  were,  in  truth,  very  happy. 

But  how  felt  our  children  X 

"  How  delightful  we  all  thought  it  for  the 
first  five  minutes  !"  writes  Louie.  "  Eleven 
children  packed  in  straw,  with  carpet-bags 
and  dressing-cases  filling  up  the  crevices,  and 
a  canvas  awning  over  our  heads  !  In  the  exu- 
berance of  our  spirits,  we  all  sang, '  In  the  days 
when  we  went  gypseying.'  But,  in  a  very  short 
time,  complaints  and  murmurs  began  to  arise 
from  all  parties.  '  How  the  wagon  jolts  !'  cried 
one :  '  How  burning  hot  the  sun  is  through 
the  top  !'  exclaimed  another :  '  How  uncom- 
fortable it  is  not  to  have  any  seats !'  said  a 
third,  moving  impatiently." 

"  Before  we  had  been  three  yards,"  writes 
Lucy,  "  Polly's  cage  began  swinging  back- 
wards and  forwards  amongst  us,  knocking  the 
heads  on  each  side  of  it ;  and  the  poor  little 
canaries  were  jolted  off  their  perches  to  the 
bottom  of  their  own  cage.    That  we  might  not 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON,  295 

incommode  the  person  opposite  to  each  of  us, 
we  were  obliged  to  draw  our  feet  under  us, 
like  tailors,  or  to  sit  upon  our  heels ;  but  then, 
if  we  leant  against  the  sides  of  the  wagon,  we 
felt  that  the  skin  would  soon  be  rubbed  off 
our  shoulders  by  its  jolting.  Fancy  our  posi- 
tion ;  with  two  little  children  tumbling  in  the 
hay  and  crawling  over  everybody,  and  that 
dreadful  cage  thumping  our  heads  !" 

"  We  had  all  looked  forwards  with  impa- 
tience," writes  Agnes,  "  to  the  day  of  starting 
afresh  on  our  journey,  and  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  wagon.  .  At  last,  our  equipage  came  to 
the  door;  and,  with  a  little  squeezing,  the 
whole  number  found  room  to  sit,  some  on  the 
hay  on  the  floor  and  some  on  carpet  bags.  In 
the  town,  our  spirits  rose  even  higher,  and  we 
enjoyed  the  jolting  on  the  pavement ;  but  as 
wTe  found  it  did  not  abate,  we  soon  began  to 
tire  of  it ;  and  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  no- 
velty, had  wished  to  sit  on  hay,  were  glad  to 
change  their  places  with  those  who  were  on 
bags.  But  as  not  even  that  position  brought 
the  pleasure  they  had  expected,  an  unpleasant 
conviction    very   soon    forced   itself  into    our 


296  THE    WABASH. 

minds — namely,  that  travelling  in  a  wagon  on 
American  roads  was  not  the  most  agreeable 
way  of  progressing  ;  which,  of  course,  we  had 
thought  it  would  be.  But  what  was  our  sur- 
prise, a  little  way  out  of  Indianapolis,  just  as 
we  were  beginning  to  resign  ourselves  to  the 
jolting,  to  find  it  cease  suddenly !  On  looking 
out  from  under  the  awning,  to  discover  the 
cause  of  this  unexpected  change,  we  found 
that  we  were  travelling  on  a  plank  road.  This, 
to  our  great  joy,  continued  some  miles  ;  during 
which  our  anticipations  of  the  pleasures  of 
travelling  in  a  wagon  were  partly  realized : 
although  we  could  not  help  wishing  sometimes, 
as  the  heat  of  the  day  advanced,  that  the  wa- 
gon had  been  made  a  little,  wider." 

Partly  to  give  our  children  more  room,  and 
partly  as  a  guard  to  our  baggage,  I  sent  Ke- 
nelm,  who  was  nearly  sixteen  and  the  eldest 
of  my  boys  then  with  us,  to  ride  in  the  wagon 
with  the  heavy  goods  and  Morrison,  who,  I 
found,  could  not  travel  as  fast  as  I  did.  Mor- 
rison, indeed,  had  suggested  that  we  ought  to 
carry  a  couple  of  revolvers  with  us,  to  use  in 
case  of  an  attack  from  robbers.    I  had  laughed 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  29T 

at  the  proposal,  and  asked  him  if  he  thought 
Americans  would  turn  highway  robbers  in 
order  to  pillage  clothes,  linen  and  books,  and 
such  other  heavy  luggage  :  but  the  man  shook 
his  head  mysteriously,  and  intimated  that  he 
believed  our  boxes  to  contain  goods  of  a  dif- 
ferent description.  I  had  then  asked  Colonel 
Drake  his  opinion  of  the  need  of  firearms ;  but 
was  assured  by  him  that  a  highway  robbery 
was  scarcely  ever  heard  of  in  the  state.  He 
himself,  he  said,  rode  and  drove  through  the 
country  alone  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night, 
when  he  was  known  to  have  large  sums  of 
government  money  about  him  ;  but  he  had 
never  felt  cause  for  the  least  anxiety.  1  had 
started,  therefore,  without  the  revolvers ;  and 
if  I  now  sent  Kenelm  to  the  other  wagon,  it 
was  more  that  he  might  hold  a  horse  or  cany 
a  message  in  case  of  need,  than  from  any  fear 
of  banditti. 

A  pragmatical  idiot  was  that  Morrison.  He 
was  an  Irishman  by  birth ;  but  though  he  had 
been  a  matter  of  thirty  years  in  America,  he 
professed  to  have  known  and  to  remember  all 
about  English  people  and  their  ways  ;  and  pre- 


298  THE  WABASH. 

tended  to  discover  that  we  were  not  of  the 
common  class  of  emigrants,  and  to  treat  us 
with  immense  respect.  Then  he  had  been  a 
schoolmaster  in  his  youth  ;  and  he  would  force, 
upon  my  boy,  endless  discussions  not  only  on 
the  English  but  on  the  Latin  grammar  like- 
wise, of  which  he  remembered  a  few  words. 
He  thought  himself  very  learned  ;  and  no  less 
a  man  of  the  world  and  knowing  in  the  ways 
of  America,  than  he  was  learned :  and  I  soon 
found  that  he  considered  himself  personally 
offended  whenever  I  did  anything  in  the  slight- 
est degree  contrary  to  his  advice. 

But  we  soon  left  him  and  his  wagon  behind, 
as  we  trotted  lightly  along  this  plank  road. 
And  very  pleasant  a  plank  road  is  to  travel 
upon.  It  may  be  slippery  in  wet  weather  : 
but  now  it  saved  us  from  the  dust  which  would 
have  arisen  from  gravel ;  and  the  sawn  boards 
or  planks,  about  three  inches  thick,  being 
nailed  to  sleepers  at  the  two  sides  of  the  road, 
spanned  it  from  side  to  side,  and  rose  and  sank 
under  us  with  the  elasticity  of  the  floor  of  a 
ball  room.  On  each  side  of  the  plank  track, 
between  it  and  the  worm  fences  that  bounded 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  299 

the  road,  were  holes  and  stumps  and  ditches 
and  natural  water  courses  that  no  wheels  could 
venture  amongst. 

The  road  continued  in  a  nearly  straight  di- 
rection through  a  pleasant  country,  in  which 
cultivated  spots  amid  the  woods  and  prairies 
grew  more  and  more  rare.  There  was  a  good 
deal  of  traffic  on  the  road ;  quite  as  much  as 
would  be  seen  on  a  turnpike  road  in  England  ; 
but  it  was  confined  entirely  to  rough-and- 
ready  carriages  or  agricultural  teams :  all  these 
went  at  a  trot — more  or  less  fast.  Plough 
horses,  in  all  this  country,  get  over  nearly  five 
miles  an  hour : — with  less  of  fatigue  to  them- 
selves than  our  heavy  English  teams  creep 
over  two  miles.  AVe  passed,  also,  several  wa- 
gons loaded  with  emigrants :  some  with  their 
bedding  and  articles  of  furniture.  Our  horses 
attracted  considerable  notice,  as  being  better 
than  those  usually  driven  by  emigrants ;  but 
in  other  respects,  our  equipage  Avas  entirely 
like  those  used  in  the  country,  and  passed 
without  the  slightest  regard.  This  was  what 
we  wished. 

About  one  o'clock,  I  pulled  up  at  a  little 


300  THE    WABASH. 

inn  in  a  little  village  named  Springfield,  where 
I  had  been  advised  to  bait.  My  horses  were 
unharnessed  and  taken  into  a  shed,  the  floor 
and  litter  of  which  the  man  who  attended  them 
first  thoroughly  sprinkled  and  saturated  with 
water.  He  told  me  this  was  necessary  to  keep 
down  the  fleas  that  would  otherwise  devour 
the  horses.  Returning  to  the  inn,  I  mentioned 
this  to  my  wife,  who  reminded  me  that  the 
same  plan  had  always  been  followed  in  the 
rooms  she  had  occupied  in  Turkey,  on  her 
journey  from  Constantinople  to  Vienna  across 
the  Balkan,  when  she  had  slept,  for  twenty- 
three  nights,  on  straw  laid  over  mud  floors. 
Such  are  the  pleasures  of  travelling  for  plea- 
sure ! 

I  had  cautioned  my  family  not  to  complain 
of  the  jolting  of  the  wagon,  lest  it  should  ap- 
pear that  they  had  never  ridden  in  one  before  ; 
and  in  answer  to  the  usual  string  of  interroga- 
tories, to  assume  the  character  of  emigrants 
going  from  Cincinnati  to  Illinois.  I  now  found 
them  in  a  little  sitting  room,  furnished  with  a 
few  books  and  a  rocking  sofa,  seated  round  a 
dirty  tablecloth,  and  swallowing,  with  such  ap- 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  301 

petite  as  wagons  give,  a  dinner  consisting  of 
broiled  ham,  bread,  good  honey  in  the  honey- 
comb, and  coffee.  The  landlady  was  standing 
by,  fanning  them  all  with  a  peacock's  tail ;  and 
I  heard  the  following  dialogue  between  her 
and  my  wife  : — 

"  I  suppose  now  you  come  from  Cincinnati 
and  are  going  Wesf?" 

This  was  assented  to. 

"  What's  your  name  ?" 

It  was  told. 

"  I  don't  remember  such  a  name.  There 
was  a  Mrs.  West  who  kept  a  school  at  Cincin- 
nati, but  she's  been  dead  these  three  year." 

"  I  am  not  a  school  mistress." 

"  No  !  well  now,  I  thought  you  was.  What 
are  all  these  young  folk  V 

"  My  children." 

"  Well  now,  I  shouldn't  think  so  if  you 
didn't  say  so.  You  don't  look  old  enough  to 
have  all  these  children.  You've  a  good  lot  of 
them,  to  be  sure !  You've  been  married  some 
time,  I  s'poseT' 

This  was  sufficiently  evident.  Although  Dr. 
Johnson  did  say  that  the  Americans  multiplied 


302  THE  WABASH. 

with  the  rapidity  of  their  own  rattlesnakes, 
her  asking  such  a  question  proved  that  our 
landlady's  interrogative  powers  were  well  nigh 
exhausted :  and  as  we  had  also  fallen  in  her 
estimation  since  my  wife  had  denied  being  a 
schoolmistress,  she  soon  left  us  comparatively 
to  ourselves. 

After  a  rest  of  three  hours,  we  started  again  ; 
and  traversing  a  country  road  much  like  that 
of  the  forenoon,  arrived  at  a  village,  where  I 
was  much  pleased  to  find  a  large  respectable- 
looking  hotel.  Here  we  had  planned  to  pass 
the  night ;  and  it  was  with  some  dismay  that 
I  discovered  that  all  the  blinds  and  shutters  of 
the  house  were  closed.  No  one  answered  my 
summons :  but  people  came  to  their  several 
doors  in  the  village  and  gazed  upon  us.  I 
went  to  some  of  them,  and  ascertained  that 
the  mistress  of  the  house  had  died,  the  day  be- 
fore, of  cholera,  and  that  her  husband  had  shut 
up  the  premises  and  had  left;  but  they  offered 
to  find  the  managing  waiter,  who,  perhaps, 
could  let  us  in  and  fix  us  up  for  the  night. 
Imagine  our  feelings  on  hearing  this  offer  to 
be  let  into   the  house  where,  I  believe,  the 


CHAP.   XI. THE    WAGON.  303 

cholera -stricken  corpse  still  lay  unburied  ! 
The  stage  coach  from  Indianapolis  drove  into 
the  town  and  stopped  to  change  horses  ;  and 
I  hastened  to  take  counsel  of  the  driver.  Sure 
enough,  the  landlord  had  deserted  the  pre- 
mises ;  for  he  had  travelled  by  that  coach  the 
night  before,  and  the  driver  believed  several 
others  besides  the  mistress  had  died  in  the 
house ;  but  he  assured  me  that  I  should  find 
very  good  quarters  at  a  place  called  Long's 
House,  about  three  miles  further  on. 

We  started  again  ;  but  tired  and  terrified 
at  what  we  had  heard.  The  sun  was  setting, 
and  we  thought  those  three  miles  interminable. 
The  country  became  more  wild ;  the  road  more 
broken;  yet  onwards  we  toiled.  Dark  fir  woods 
covered  the  little  we  could  see  of  the  country; 
and  day  was  closing  in  as  the  longed-for  Long's 
House  loomed  in  sight.  It  was  a  single  house. 
My  children  hurried  out  of  the  wagon,  and  into 
a  neat  parlour  on  the  ground  floor,  where  was 
a  bed  in  a  recess. 

<;  On  the  table,"  writes  Louie,  "  lay  several 
books  of  fashions,  magazines,  and  other  books, 
which  I  looked  over.     I  had  just  begun  to  in- 


304  THE  WABASH. 

terest  myself  in  a  German  ghost  story,  when  a 
young  woman  with  long  ringlets  came  in  and, 
taking  the  book  from  me,  said  '  I  wish  you'd 
let  those  books  alone,  and  not  go  spoiling  them 
that  way.'  So  saying,  she  left  the  room,  slam- 
ming the  door  after  her.  At  that  moment,  our 
youngest  brother,  who  had  been  asleep  on  one 
of  our  sisters'  lap,  woke  up  and  began  crying 
for  some  tea,  he  was  so  thirsty.  Mama  was 
trying  to  pacify  him,  when  papa  came  into  the 
room  with  the  landlady." 

I  had,  in  fact,  driven  my  wagon  to  the  side 
of  the  road,  and  followed  Mr.  Long  as  he  led 
my  horses  into  a  large  barn  at  the  bottom  of 
his  farmyard.  Here  I  had  had  to  consult  with 
him  how  many  ears  of  Indian  corn  the  horses 
ought  to  have  with  their  oats ;  for  it  seemed 
to  be  considered  necessary  that  they  should 
have  some,  and  to  be  dangerous  to  give  them 
too  many.  The  ears  were  to  be  paid  for  at  so 
much  each.  Mr.  Long  was  an  Irishman,  who 
had  emigrated  many  years  before ;  he  had 
married  an  American,  by  whom  he  had  a 
grown-up  daughter:  he  was  very  civil,  but, 
apparently,   melancholy   and   timid.      This  I 


CHAP.  XI. THE    WAGON.  305 

could  account  for  when  I  became  acquainted 
with  his  wife  and  daughter.  For,  when  I  now 
accompanied  her  into  the  little  room  where  all 
my  family  were  congregated,  and  we  asked  her 
to  show  us  our  bedrooms,  she  drily  answered 
that  she  could  not  spare  us  any. 

"  Where,  then,  are  we  to  sleep  V  I  asked. 

"  Oh,  you  can  sleep  here,  can't  you  1"  she 
replied. 

"  What !  father,  mother,  and  eleven  chil- 
dren V 

"  Well,  now,  if  you  can't  sleep  here,  I  cal- 
culate that  you  must  sleep  in  the  wagon." 

I  had  already  discovered  that,  to  get  even 
money's  worth  in  these  countries,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  adopt  a  system  of  canvassing ;  to  treat 
every  one  as  one  would  an  unwilling  or  hos- 
tile voter  in  an  English  election.  Fortunately, 
we  had  had  experience  in  such  matters ;  and 
drawing  the  cross-grained  old  woman  aside, 
my  wife  and  I  began  to  butter  and  coax  her 
with  soft  sawder,  as  if  we  hoped  to  get  her  to 
plump  for  us.  The  infernal  hag  at  last  so  far 
relented  as  to  place  one  other,  a  large  double- 
bedded  room,  at  our  disposal.     We  hurried 


306  THE    WABASH. 

some  of  our  children  into  it,  to  secure  it,  while 
others  went  out  to  the  wagon  to  fetch  in  their 
carpet-bags  and  dressing-cases  ; — afraid  to  ask 
the  woman  of  the  house  to  assist  them,  lest 
she  should  take  the  room  from  them  again. 
We  now  begged  to  have  tea. 

"  But  what  do  you  want  tea  for  V 

"  Because,"  I  said,  "  we  have  had  nothing 
to  eat  since  two  o'clock,  and  the  children  are 
very  hungry." 

"  Well,  now ;  you  should  have  come  earlier; 
for  we  have  all  finished  this  long  time  ;  and 
you  would  not  have  us  fix  it  up  again,  would 
you  V 

Again  we  had  recourse  to  the  "  butter"  and 
"  soft  sawder";  and  again,  but  with  greater 
difficulty,  we  persuaded  mother  and  daughter 
to  give  us  what  we  needed.  They  boiled  the 
kettle  and  spread  a  cloth  in  another  room ; 
whining  through  their  noses  and  talking  at  us 
during  the  whole  time.  Once,  I  unluckily 
said  a  few  words  in  praise  of  their  meek  hus- 
band and  father,  who  wisely  stayed  with  the 
horses  in  the  stable  ;  my  praise  only  turned 
their  talk  against  all  emigrants  and  Irishmen. 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  307 

Meanwhile,  Morrison  arrived  with  the  lug- 
gage wagon  and  silently  drew  it  up  beside  the 
road.  He  then  unharnessed  his  horses  and 
tied  them  to  a  paling  ;  and  the  first  words  he 
spoke  to  any  one,  were  addressed  to  the  land- 
lord who  had  come  out  to  greet  him : — 

"  Well,  colonel ;  good  evening.  Can  you 
oblige  me  with  a  few  oats  and  a  score  of  corn 
heads  for  these  horses  V 

"  Will  you  not  put  them  in  the  stable  ?"  I 
asked. 

"  What  would  be  the  good  ?  It  is  a  fine 
warm  night.  Why  should  I  pay  for  stable 
room  { 

Our  six  girls,  with  their  two  baby  brothers, 
now  took  possession  of  the  room  which  our 
tactics  had  won  from  the  she-dragons,  Mother 
and  Daughter  Long.  Our  three  elder  boys  went 
out  to  pass  the  night  amid  the  hay  in  the  bot- 
tom of  our  wagon  ;  and  I  and  my  wife  were 
left  to  our  parlour  down  stairs. 

"  There  were  two  large  beds  in  our  room," 
writes  Lucy ;  "  and  we  took  off  one  of  the 
mattresses  and  laid  it  on  the  floor  for  our 
elder  sisters,  Catharine  and  Ellen,  and  for  little 


308  THE    WABASH. 

Isabel.  Agnes  and  Louie  took  one  of  the 
beds,  and  I  had  the  other  for  myself  and  my 
two  baby  brothers.  I  was  waked  up,  about 
twenty  times  during  the  night,  by  first  one 
baby  kicking  me  on  one  side  and  then  the 
other  on  the  other  side.  Sometimes  they  would 
throw  themselves  across  me ;  sometimes  one  of 
them  would  kick  me  in  the  face  in  his  rest- 
less sleep.  I  had  not  much  rest  or  sleep  that 
night;  but  poor  Ellen  was  worse  off  than  I. 
Each  time  I  woke,  she  was  either  tossing  about 
the  bed  or  walking  up  and  down  the  room, 
with  the  toothache,  afraid  of  disturbing  Cathe- 
rine. It  was  with  joy  we  heard  a  clock  strike 
six,  and  we  all  got  up  immediately,  tired  as  we 
were.  But  here  a  new  difficulty  arose  : — there 
was  neither  bason,  jug,  water,  nor  towels  in 
the  room.  We  asked  our  kind  hostess  to  give 
us  some,  and  she  asked,  in  her  usual  querulous 
tone: — 

"  But  what  do  you  want  them  for  ?" 

"  To  wash  ourselves  with." 

"  Well,  then ;  you  can't  have  them,  for  we 
hav'n't  any." 

"  But  what  are  we  to  do  V 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  309 

"  You  can  go  down  to  the  yard  and  you'll 
find  a  pump  and  a  towel." 

';  We  did  not  relish  the  idea,"  continues 
Lucy  ;  "  so  Ellen  dressed  herself  and  went 
down,  and  found  the  daughter  of  the  old  wo- 
man, and  represented  to  her  how  she  had  been 
suffering  all  night  after  a  fatiguing  day  ;  and 
how  unpleasant  it  would  be  to  begin  another 
day  without  making  any  ablutions.  After 
talking  to  her  thus  for  a  long  time — but  with 
the  greatest  politeness — she  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining from  her  a  small  tin  pie-dish  and  a 
towel :  she  then  went  to  the  pump,  and  filled 
the  dish  with  water,  and  brought  her  prizes 
up  to  us.  Imagine  wThat  a  splendid  washing 
we  had  in  the  pie-dish  !" 

This  morning  Mrs.  Long  and  her  daughter 
positively  refused  to  give  us  any  breakfast. 
"  It  was  too  much  trouble."  "  There  were  too 
many  of  us."  "  She  had  something  else  to  do." 
"  She  did  not  care  for  our  money."  And 
"  there  was  a  good  hotel  one  mile  further  on." 
The  last  motive  encouraged  us  to  let  her  have 
her  own  way  ;  and  we  left  her.  I  forget  all 
the  woes  that  I  imprecated  on  her  head :  but 


310  THE  WABASH. 

my  feelings  are  now  calmed  clown,  and  as,  no 
doubt,  the  two  women  have  worried  their  hus- 
band and  father  to  death,  I  now  only  wish 
that  the  daughter  may  have  married  some 
sturdy  German  emigrant  who  beats  both  her 
and  her  mother  once  a  week,  and  compels 
them  to  wash  themselves.  The  libellers  !  why, 
according  to  their  showing,  American  women 
(they  themselves  were  American  born)  Ameri- 
can women,  in  the  station  of  farmers'  wives, 
know  no  other  ablutions  than  what  they  ad- 
minister to  themselves  at  the  pump  in  the 
yard  !     Can  this  be  true '? 

In  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  we  came  to  the 
house  where  Mrs.  Long  had  assured  us  we 
should  get  a  good  breakfast.  It  was  a  log 
cottage  of  the  poorest  kind,  beside  a  dark 
forest  of  small  Scotch  firs.  For  curiosity,  I 
asked  what  provisions  they  had:  plenty  of 
whiskey  and  a  little  corn  bread.  But  Mount 
Meridian  was  only  half  a  dozen  miles  further  ; 
and,  in  this  pretty  little  village,  we  found  a 
decent  public  house,  the  poor  woman  of  which 
set  out  for  us  a  tolerable  breakfast,  and  at- 
tended on  us  as  well  as  she  could.    But  she  too 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  811 

was  suffering  from  the  toothache  ;  and  was 
soon  obliged  to  betake  herself  to  the  chimney 
corner,  where  she  sat  smoking  a  pipe  of  to- 
bacco in  the  hope  of  relieving  the  pain. 

After  Mount  Meridian,  we  found  our  road 
change  sadly  for  the  worse.  It  is  true 
that  it  is  marked  in  all  the  maps  as  the 
"  National  Road"  leading  from  east  to  west 
in  an  almost  straight  line — from  Pittsburgh  to 
St.  Louis  :  and  it  had  been  fenced  in  and  laid 
down  as  such  :  but  Congress,  by  subsequent 
decision,  declared  that  the  making  and  main- 
taining of  roads  was  not  a  national  affair,  but 
should  be  at  the  charge  of  each  State  that 
wanted  them.  The  condition  of  this  repudi- 
ated road,  now,  therefore,  depended  upon  the 
wants  and  the  traffic  of  each  township  through 
which  it  passed.  The  tract  of  country  after 
passing  Mount  Meridian  was  but  thinly  in- 
habited :  the  road  was  little  used,  and  still  less 
attention  was  given  to  keep  it  up.  The  water 
tables  on  each  side  were  choked  or  washed 
away:  water  courses  ran  down  the  middle  of 
it  or  furrowed  it  deep  from  side  to  side,  or  dug- 
it  into  wide  pits.     Sometimes,  these  had  to  be 


312  THE    WABASH. 

passed  through  almost  on  stepping  stones : 
sometimes,  the  rain  -  channels  were  bridged 
over  by  planks,  so  short  that  there  was  not  an 
inch  to  spare  at  the  side  of  each  wheel.  Some- 
times, where  the  gravelly  top  soil  was  quite 
worn  away,  and  a  quicksandy  bottom  exposed 
beneath,  a  track,  just  wide  enough  for  the 
wheels,  was  made  by  a  corduroy  road  laid 
across  the  bog.  I  have  already  explained  the 
construction  of  a  plank  road:  the  difference 
between  it  and  a  corduroy  road  is  much  the 
same  as  that  between  a  log  and  a  frame  house. 
A  corduroy  road  is  made  of  the  unhewn  boles  of 
trees  laid  side  by  side  on  the  earth.  A  slip  is 
nailed  across  each  end  to  keep  them  in  their 
places :  and  the  wheels,  whether  of  carriage  or 
wagon,  fall  from  bole  to  bole  with  the  regu- 
larity of  the  thumps  and  stops  with  which  the 
cogs  in  the  wheels  of  a  watch  play  into  and 
arrest  one  another.  Sometimes,  the  hollow 
between  each  prostrate  trunk  of  a  tree  is  par- 
tially tilled  up  by  earth  ;  and  then,  of  course, 
the  jolts  are  less  severe. 

My  horses  were  rather  too  spirited  for  this 
work;  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  I  could 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  313 

restrain  and  guide  them.  I  was  very  proud  of 
the  Jehuship  with  which  I  threaded  the  intri- 
cacies of  the  "  National  Road"  :  I  have  since 
driven  across  the  St.  Gothard  Alps  ;  but  this 
was  the  more  difficult  feat  of  the  two. 

We  went  down  to  a  brook,  where  they  were 
building  the  foundations  of  a  bridge,  and  up 
its  prettily  wooded  banks  on  the  other  side, 
where  a  nice  looking  house,  called,  I  think, 
the  Stag  House,  hung  out  its  signboard.  Soon 
after  this,  our  road  led  us  into  the  beautiful 
parklike  grounds  of  a  forest ;  and  here  all 
traces  of  it  suddenly  ceased.  Not  a  track  was 
to  be  seen  on  the  smooth  green  turf  beneath 
the  tall,  shady  oak  trees.  The  fresh  breezes, 
that  came  to  us  as  from  its  deep  shades,  were 
delightful.  We  would  willingly  have  lingered 
here  a-gypsying  ;  but  our  journey  lay  before 
us.  Some  citizens,  driving  wagons,  pointed 
out  the  track  to  me.  It  led  down  to  the  side 
of  a  pretty  stream,  I  believe  some  of  the  head 
waters  of  the  White  River.  They  were  rather 
deep  ;  but  we  forded  them,  and  clambered 
up  on  the  other  side.  Here  many  scores  of 
labourers  were  at  work  on  cuttings  and  em- 


314  THE  WABASH. 

bankments  for  the  railroad  from  Indianapolis 
to  St.  Louis. 

The  weather  was  intolerably  hot,  and  our 
children  and  horses  suffered  much,  notwith- 
standing the  fine  prairie  breeze  that  met  us. 
I,  indeed,  complained  that  it  chilled  and  gave 
me  the  rheumatism,  as  it  blew  through  the 
tunnel  shaped  awning  of  our  wagon,  and 
whistled  round  my  shoulders  and  loins,  clad, 
as  they  were,  in  the  new  thin  Indianapolis  suit 
of  brown  holland  :  but  I  had  felt  griping  pains 
and  uneasiness  all  the  morning,  which  may 
have  accounted  for  this.  What,  however,  was 
our  surprise  and  delight  to  find,  at  the  distance 
of  every  four  miles  along  this  miserable  road, 
amid  the  backwoods  of  America,  public  wells 
and  pumps,  supplied  with  buckets  for  the  use 
of  cattle,  and  tin  cups  from  which  to  assuage 
human  thirst !  Here  was  the  ancient  civiliza- 
tion and  kind  feeling  of  the  East  transplanted 
into  the  almost  untrodden  wilderness  of  the 
Far  West !  I  have  doubted  whether  we  drank 
too  unsparingly  at  these  wells ;  but  I  do  not 
think  so.     I  myself  was  already  ill. 

Our   children    suffered   severely   from    the 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  315 

roughness  of  the  road,  as  the  consequent  jolt- 
ing of  the  wagon  was  rendered  almost  intoler- 
able. "  Polly's  cage,"  writes  Lucy,  "  had 
threatened  our  heads  with  dreadful  knocks,  so 
that  I  had  been  obliged  to  hold  it  with  both 
hands  to  steady  it ;  but  now,  instead  of  the 
cage  hitting  me,  I  was  thrown  against  the  cage  ; 
and  I  really  do  not  know  which  I  preferred, 
but  I  think  the  former.  I  almost  fancy  that 
I  can  still  feel  the  bruises  I  then  received. 
Now  was  the  time  when  all  our  different  cha- 
racters and  dispositions  were  shown.  The 
most  patient  and  good-tempered  were,  Cathe- 
rine, the  eldest ;  Frank,  the  second  brother 
with  us  ;  and  Isabel,  who  was  the  youngest  of 
us  girls,  but  yet  so  much  older  than  the  two 
baby  boys  that  we  seemed  as  two  families. 
When  one  or  other  had  a  headache,  Catherine 
would  take  him  or  her  and  lay  them  in  a  com- 
fortable place  by  her  own  side,  and  then  read 
aloud  a  chapter  out  of  a  Kempis'  Imitation  of 
Christ,  by  way  of  checking  the  discontent  of 
another  or  of  all.  When  we  went  slow  enough, 
Frank  would  get  out  and  walk,  in  order  to 
make  more  room  for  the  others,  and,  heedless 


316  THE    WABASH. 

of  the  heat  himself,  would  pick  and  bring 
flowers  to  break  the  monotony  of  our  drive. 
And  Isabel,  who  was  nine  years  old,  would  take 
the  two  babies  to  herself,  and  try  to  keep  them 
amused  by  telling  stories  quietly  to  them  in 
one  corner  of  the  wagon." 

"We  stopped  to  bait  and  dine  this  day  at  a 
village  containing  about  two  score  of  houses, 
to  one  of  the  best  of  which  we  were  invited  by 
a  signboard  inscribed  "  Townsend  House";  and 
a  very  comfortable  little  farmhouse  it  was,  neat 
and  clean,  and  but  recently  built,  of  red  brick. 
The  son  of  the  landlord  was  married,  and  lived 
in  the  well  whitewashed  log-house  close  beside 
it.  There  his  father  had  first  settled  in  the 
backwoods.  With  an  air  of  great  condescen- 
sion, the  son  assisted  me  to  take  the  harness 
from  my  horses,  and  to  give  them  their  corn 
in  the  stable.  But  the  father,  mother,  and 
daughters,  were  exceedingly  civil  and  atten- 
tive :  they  laid  us  out  a  comparatively-excel- 
lent dinner  on  a  very  white  tablecloth,  and 

* 

stood  and  chatted  with  us,  and  fanned  us  with 
peacocks'  tails  the  while  we  ate.  All  this  was 
done  with  a  manner  perfectly  respectful  to  us 


CHAP.    XI. — THE    WAGON.  317 

but  as  perfectly  self- respectful  to  themselves, 
— a  genuine  American  manner  of  the  best  sort. 
They  gave  us  what  we  wanted,  and  we  were 
to  remunerate  them  for  it.  Having  announced 
that  they  kept  open  house,  it  was  so  far  their 
duty  to  make  their  guests  welcome  ;  but  here 
was  no  cringing  for  custom,  no  expression  of 
excessive  gratitude :  the  obligation  on  both 
sides  was  mutual. 

But  Mr.  Townsend  was  an  independent 
man :  he  had  evidently  an  estate  the  produce 
of  which  had  brought  up  his  family,  settled 
his  eldest  son,  and  built  himself  a  good  new 
house  and  outbuildings.  True,  he  had  a  pub- 
lican's sign  before  his  door ;  but  this  was  put 
up  with   the  intention  of  keeping  off  guests 

I  rather  than  of  attracting  them.  Paradoxical 
as  it  may  seem,  such  is  the  motive  and  object 
of  the  signs  before  these  lone  farmhouses  in 
the  West.  The  tide  of  emigrants  sets  past 
them.     Hospitality  would  forbid  them  to  turn 

/  from  their  doors  people  who  might  ask  for  food 
and  shelter.  They  would  be  obliged,  there- 
fore, to  receive  all  applicants  to  their  board 
and  hearth.     By  putting  up  a  sign  and  an- 


318  THE  WABASH. 

nouncing  themselves  as  publicans,  they  will,  at 
least,  keep  away  those  who  cannot  pay  for 
respectable  accommodation. 

Mr.  Townsend  and  I  spoke  of  the  railway 
then  in  progress  near  him.  He  was  surprised, 
he  said,  to  discover  the  wealth  of  the  farmers. 
"  We  have  been  waiting,  sir,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  for  the  monied  men  of  the  towns  to  do  the 
work ;  but  we  have  now  found  out  our 
strength  ;  they  may  drop  it  or  go  on  with  it  as 
they  like ;  we  shall  complete  it  ourselves  and 
for  our  own  benefit." 

How  strange  it  was  to  hear  a  farmer  in  the 
backwoods  of  America  thus  assert  the  benefit 
of  railroads  to  his  class,  while  I  remembered 
the  difficulties  experienced  in  making  them 
through  purely  agricultural  districts  in  Eng- 
land, and  even  the  opposition  so  often  shown 
to  them  by  our  wealthy  landowners !  The 
railroad  in  this  neighbourhood  was  being  made 
almost  entirely  by  Irish  labourers.  Of  them, 
my  landlord  spoke  as  I  had  often  before  heard 
Americans  speak  of  the  Irish  : — 

"  They  make  our  railroads  and  docks  and 
drink  our  whisky.    An  Englishman,  a  Scotch- 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  319 

man,  a  German — all  settle  down  into  good  ci- 
tizens: an  Irish  emigrant  scarcely  ever  does 
so.  The  Germans  make  very  quiet,  good  citi- 
zens." 

Can  a  people  that  has  been  oppressed  and 
degraded  in  every  possible  way,  and  purposely, 
for  centuries,  be  expected  to  use  its  freedom, 
when  it  suddenly  escapes  from  its  fetters,  as 
those  who  have  never  worn  them  ?  The  Scotch 
and  the  Germans  have,  for  example,  been  edu- 
cated for  generations :  for  generations,  even 
hedge  teachers  for  the  Irish  have  been  pro- 
scribed. 

I  believe  it  was  the  unpleasant  feeling  within 
me  that  gave  me  a  yearning  for  something  to 
drink  here  stronger  than  water,  and  I  crossed 
the  street  of  the  village  to  a  store  where  I  saw 
a  printed  bill  recommending  a  beverage  it 
called  "Cronk".  I  had  seen  this  advertized  in 
every  village  we  had  passed,  and  highly  puffed. 
Wishing  also  to  become  acquainted  with  a 
tipple  unknown  in  Europe,  I  had  a  bottle 
opened  for  me.  It  fizzed  up  like  gingerbeer  : 
but  the  taste  was  so  unpalatable  that  I  set  down 
the  glass  undrunk.    The  mortified  vender  (per- 


320  THE  WABASH. 

haps  it  was  the  Dr.  Cronk  himself,  who,  they 
told  me,  had  invented  it)  refused  to  take  the 
few  cents,  the  price  of  the  bottle. 

Newspapers,    periodical    publications,    and 
Methodist  hymn-books,  were,  as  usual,  lying 
about  the  parlour  of  this  neat  farmhouse  ;  and 
as  my  Louie  was  not  here  inhibited  from  look- 
ing at  them,  she  would  as  willingly  as  myself 
have  lingered  longer  with  its  intelligent  in- 
mates.    "  In  the  forenoon,"  she  writes,  "  we 
had  found   every  hour  that  we  spent  in   the 
wagon  more  intolerable  than  the  last,  and  we 
had  heartily  wished  ourselves  at  our  journey's 
end.     I  had  suffered  from  such  a  pain  in  my 
side  that  I  had  been  obliged  to  lie  down  amongst 
the  carpet  bags,  and  try  to  sleep,  for  it  was 
increased  much  by  the  jolting  of  the  wagon ; 
but  when   we   again  proceeded,   in   the   cool 
evening  air,  our  spirits  rose,  and  we  began  twin- 
ing round  our  bonnets  some  of  the  wild  flowers 
and  feathers   that  our  brothers  had  brought 
us,  as  we  all  joined  in   singing  the  French 
cantiques    that  we  had   learned  at  Talence. 
How  delighted  would  have  been  the  heart  of 
any   good    French    emigrant    priest    had    he 


CHAP.    XI. —  THE    WAGON.  321 

chanced  to  pass  by,  and  heard  the  beautiful 
cantique, 

1  Crois,  en  Dieu  createur  du  ciel  et  de  la  terre, 
Qui  conserve  et  gouveme  en  maitre  l'univers,' 

thus  sung  by  the  inmates  of  a  wagon  in  the 
backwoods  of  America !  I  bethought  me  how, 
forgetting  his  exile,  he  would  have  fancied 
himself  once  more  in  his  own  beloved  France, 
surrounded  by  the  village  girls  singing  their 
favourite  hymn  ; — how  he  would  have  heard 
once  more,  in  imagination,  the  bells  of  his  own 
little  village  church, — until,  recalled  by  the 
setting  of  the  sun  in  front  of  him,  he  would 
have  started  to  say  the  prayer  which  is  said  at 
that  moment  by  three  hundred  millions  of  his 
fellow  Catholics  in  all  parts  of  the  globe  ;  and, 
pausing  with  us  to  repeat  the  holy  words, 
would  have  remembered  where  he  was,  and 
then  with  us  would  have  joyfully  hurried  on 
towards  his  resting-place  for  the  night.  And 
so  did  we  also  hurry  on  ;  and  great  was  our 
delight  to  find  that  we  were  not  to  fare  as  we 
had  on  the  preceding  night :  for  our  present 
station  was  a  large,  clean,  comfortable-looking 
frame-house,  with  a  large  garden  around  it  filled 


322  THE    WABASH. 

with  flowers  and  fruit  trees,  and  with  two  or 
three  beehives  in  front. 

"  A  very  pretty  young  woman,"  Louie  con- 
tinues, "  sat  at  the  door  nursing  her  baby. 
Our  mother  and  eldest  sister  soon  entered  into 
conversation  with  her.  She  was  very  young, 
and  it  was  her  first  child  ;  so  she,  of  course, 
was  very  proud  of  it ;  and  it  certainly  was  a 
very  pretty  child.  In  the  house,  we  saw  marks 
of  more  civilisation  than  we  had  noted  for 
some  time.  There  were  clean  white  curtains 
to  the  beds,  which  were  covered  with  very 
smart  patch-work  quilts ;  and  all  the  dressing 
tables  had  toilet  covers.  At  tea,  we  had  fruit 
served  in,  what  was  to  us  quite  a  new  man- 
ner : — large  quantities  of  currants  were  floated 
in  molasses  ;  and  this  certainly  was  a  great 
improvement  to  this  otherwise  rather  sour  or 
tasteless  fruit." 

I  make  no  apology  for  giving  these  frequent 
extracts  from  the  records  of  my  children. 
These  pages  profess  to  recount  the  impres- 
sions and  adventures  of  a  family  in  a  new 
country.  Those  impressions  can  be  best  con- 
veyed in  the  language  of  the  several  members 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON.  323 

of  the  party.  Let  me  not  be  told  that  the 
observations  of  my  children  are  trivial :  trivial 
observations,  such  as  might  escape  the  notice 
of  the  censorious  reader  or  of  myself,  best  show 
the  everyday  habits  and  life  of  those  upon 
whom  they  are  made.  Great  historians  may 
describe  the  great  deeds  of  sovereigns  and 
heroes  : — may  write  history  as  it  has  been  de- 
livered down  to  us :  but,  for  want  of  the  re- 
cords of  a  different  class  of  observers,  how 
little  do  we  know  of  the  manners  and  feelings 
of  the  people  of  those  very  times  of  which  we 
fancy  that  we  have  learned  the  history !  I 
have  undertaken  to  write  the  history  of  a 
family  during  a  few,  to  it,  eventful  months :  I 
appeal  to  the  sympathy  of  the  reader  under  no 
false  pretences :  I  myself  know  that,  by  fol- 
lowing the  little  adventures  of  that  family,  he 
will  acquire  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
people  amongst  whom  they  occur,  than  he 
could  gather  from  whole  volumes  of  profes- 
sedly-descriptive research ;  but  if  his  pride 
revolts  from  such  a  means  of  acquiring  infor- 
mation ;  if  he  cannot  be  taught  "  out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings";  if  he  cannot 


324  THE  WABASH. 

"  suffer  little  children  to  come  unto"  him,  and 
feel  an  interest  in  their  brotherly  love  and  in 
the  sorrows  of  their  mother — in  the  unwonted 
toils  and  trials  heroically  borne  by  all, — let 
him,  at  once,  close  this  volume.  It  is  written 
by  no  congenial  spirits  ;  and  I  warn  him  that 
it  will  not  contain  anything  suited  to  his  supe- 
rior intellect. 

The  house  in  which  my  family  were  now 
enjoying  a  luxurious  contrast  with  Mrs.  Long's 
menage,  had  a  sign  in  front  of  it  which  marked 
it  as  "  Dr.  Ushaw's".  It  had  been  recom- 
mended to  me  at  the  place  where  we  had 
baited.  I  had  been  told,  what  I  afterwards 
discovered  to  be  the  fact,  that  Dr.  Ushaw  him- 
self was  a  medical  practitioner  of  no  small 
repute  in  the  district ;  and  that  he,  also,  kept 
open  house  in  order  to  avoid  intrusive  guests. 
Close  to  his  house,  were  very  good  farm  build- 
ings and  a  large  yard,  into  which  I  drove  my 
team.  I  was  looking  about  for  some  one  to 
unharness  them,  when  I  saw  a  stout,  good- 
looking  man,  without  a  coat  but  showing  very 
clean  shirt  sleeves,  and  with  a  broad-brimmed 
straw  hat  on  his  head,  drive  two  or  three  cows 


CHAP.    XT. THE    WAGON.  325 

towards  the  yard  from  a  cleared  field  beyond. 
I  opened  the  gate  to  let  them  in,  and  was  very 
civilly  greeted  by  their  driver.  This  I  found 
to  be  Dr.  Ushaw  himself.  He  immediately 
applied  himself  to  my  horses  ;  did  all  that  was 
needful  for  them,  and  then  put  his  shoulder, 
with  a  right  good  will,  to  the  wheels  of  my 
wagon  and  forced  it  under  a  wide  shed.  He 
complained  that  he  had  lately  lost  his  farming 
man— an  Irish  emigrant,  who  had  thrown  up  a 
settled  place,  in  which  he  had  the  high  wages 
that  he  had  himself  named,  for  the  adventure 
and  mob-work  with  his  countrymen  on  the 
railroad.  This,  he  said,  was  the  way  with  them 
all.  It  was  impossible  to  retain  one  of  them 
after  their  first  wants  were  satisfied  and  their 
spirits  rose.  Nor  in  the  indoors,  could  his  wife 
and  daughters  persuade  any  help  to  stay  with 
them  after  she  was  once  able  to  buy  ribbons 
and  finery,  and  had  been  trained  to  be  suffi- 
ciently handy  to  undertake  a  situation  in  a 
town. 

Dr.  Ushaw  lamented  much  the  ill-feeling 
that  existed  in  the  State  against  negroes  ;  but 
so  anxious  was  Indiana  to  avoid  the  dangers 


326  THE  WABASH. 

which  many  dreaded  from  the  influx  of  free 
negroes,  that  the  citizens  were  even  then  de- 
bating a  law  to  exclude  them  altogether  from 
their  boundaries.  Hence  free  negro  servants 
were  more  scarce  here  than  in  most  States  of 
the  Union. 

I  found  one  inmate  in  the  house,  who  had 
been  lodging  there  for  some  days.  He  was 
sipping  brandy  and  water  medicinally,  as  a 
preservative  against  cholera,  with  symptoms  of 
which  he  had  been  threatened,  and  which  had 
detained  him  here.  I  joined  him  in  taking 
the  prescribed  remedy,  and  for  the  same  rea- 
son :  and  we  sat  under  the  verandah  together. 
He  was  on  his  way  back  to  Ohio  from  a  place 
in  the  heart  of  Illinois  State  ;  he  did  not  seem 
exactly  to  know  where  ;  but  it  was  from  a  lot 
of  three  or  four  hundred  acres  of  wood  and 
prairie  that  he  had  bought ;  and  he  wound  up 
by  saying  that  he  only  hoped  that  he  should 
never  see  it  again. 

"What  could  have  induced  him  to  purchase 
it  ?"  I  asked. 

He  had  some  spare  money  that  he  wished 
to  invest :   he  had  heard  of  this  land,  which 


CHAP.    XI. THE    WAGON,  327 

was  to  be  had  at  about  three  dollars  an  acre  : 
and  so  he  had  bought  it.  The  tide  of  emigra- 
tion set  strong  that  way;  and  he  had  no  doubt 
that,  in  a  very  short  time,  he  would  be  able  to 
sell  it  again  at  double  the  cost  price.  It  was 
very  difficult  to  get  good  land  cheap  in  any 
part  of  the  United  States.  There  were  com- 
panies in  New  York,  and  in  all  the  great  towns, 
which  employed  agents  to  buy  up  for  them  all 
the  land  that  was  worth  having,  almost  as 
soon  as  it  was  surveyed;  and  who  kept  it  until 
they  could  parcel  it  out  and  sell  it  again  at  an 
immense  profit. 

All  this  was  perfectly  true,  and  showed  that 
Brother  Jonathan  knows  how  to  make  money 
out  of  even  what  is  thought  to  be  his  most 
worthless  commodity,  land. 

A  poor  labourer  had  been  taken  ill  with 
cholera  just  before  we  arrived  ;  and  had  been 
carried  to  a  house  within  sight  of  our  hotel. 
My  own  feelings  did  not  make  this  comforting 
intelligence.  A  dose  was  mixed  for  me  out  of 
our  family  medicine  chest,  and  we  all  retired 
to  bed.  After  a  disturbed  night,  during  which 
the  rest  of  the  family  were  devoured  by  mus- 


328  THE  WABASH. 

quitos,  we  all  met  around  a  plentifully  and 
neatly-spread  breakfast  table.  My  friend,  the 
land  speculator,  had  already  departed  on  his 
homeward  journey.  The  poor  man  who  had 
been  taken  ill  of  the  cholera,  was  already  dead. 
I  paid  four  dollars  and  a  half  for  our  night's 
entertainment ;  and  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  to  an 
ostler,  who  had,  at  last,  been  found  for  the 
nonce.  Then,  pleased  with  our  landlord  and 
his  family,  but  rather  damped  in  our  own 
spirits,  wTe  mounted  our  wagon  and  pursued 
our  journey. 

It  was  a  small  straggling  village  where  we 
had  passed  the  night.  A  few  log  cottages, 
dirty  and  blackened  by  time,  stood  by  the  side 
of  the  high  road  on  the  borders  of  the  stunted 
fir  forest.  It  was  called  Van  Buren.  How 
little  we  thought  that,  within  three  years,  the 
highly-informed,  gentlemanly  and  venerable 
ex-President  from  whom  it  took  its  name, 
would  be  a  guest  in  our  drawing-rooms  at 
Rome — talking  with  us  over  these  scenes  of 
our  adventures ! 

The  "  national  road  "  was  no  longer  broken 
up  as  it  had  been.    Fortunately  others,  besides 


CHAP.   XI. THE    WAGON.  329 

the  nation,  found  their  advantage  in  keeping 
it  in  order.  It  ran  in  a  straight  line  along  the 
table  land ;  then,  turning  to  the  right,  de- 
scended a  rather  steep  hill  into  the  Valley  of 
the  Wabash.  I  had  been  told  that  there  were 
two  good  hotels  at  Terre  Haute — the  Prairie 
House  and  another.  The  Prairie  was  the  first 
house  we  came  to  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 
Surprised  to  find  so  large  an  hotel  in  such  an 
out-of-the-way  part  of  the  world,  we  deter- 
mined that  it  would  be  unwise  to  pass  it  in 
search  of  any  other  possibly  better,  probably 
worse  :  and,  at  half  an  hour  before  midday,  I 
drove  into  the  yard  of  its  ample  premises. 


END    OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


T.    RICHARDS,   37,    GREAT    (JUKEN    STREET. 


